Equality Act ...Much more than just LGBTQ as a protected category.

The House of Representatives has again passed the Equality Act which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include LGBTQ as a category of persons protected from discrimination in employment and public accommodation.  But the Equality Act is much more far-reaching than a codification of last year's Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, GA that employers may not discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  The Equality Act also dramatically expands the coverage of the Civil Rights Act's prohibition on discrimination in "public accommodation."  Currently, hotels, restaurants and some entertainment venues are prohibited from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin under the public accommodation section of the Civil Rights Act.  The Equality Act not only adds sexual orientation and gender to these protected categories, but also would expand the definition of "public accommodations" to cover: (1) "any place of or establishment that provides exhibition, entertainment, recreation, exercise, amusement, public gathering, or public display;” (2) "any establishment that provides a good, service, or program, including a store, shopping center, online retailer or service provider, salon, bank, gas station, food bank, service or care center, shelter, travel agency, or funeral parlor, or establishment that provides health care, accounting, or legal services;" and "any train service, bus service, car service, taxi service, airline service, station, depot, or other place of or establishment that provides transportation service."  Even more dramatically, the Equality Act for the first time would subject individual persons to liability for prohibited discrimination by expanding the definition of an "establishment" for purposes of public accommodation discrimination to include any "individual whose operations affect commerce and who is a provider of a good, service, or program."  Public accommodations regulated by the Civil Rights Act would apparently include any entity or person that provides a good, service or program to other persons.