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               US House Passes Bill Combating LGBT Discrimination

   by VOA News

   The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a measure that bars
   federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or
   gender identity.

   The measure, which passed late Wednesday (by a vote of 223-195),
   reverses a vote last week that plunged the Republican-led House into
   chaos. The bill was on the verge of being approved as an amendment to a
   military spending bill when several Republican lawmakers who initially
   supported it changed their vote under pressure from party leaders,
   eventually sending the measure to defeat by a single vote.

   The reversal prompted a loud outcry from Democratic lawmakers, who
   accused Republicans of favoring discrimination against the LGBT
   (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

   New York Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, the bill's original sponsor who
   is openly gay, reintroduced the measure as an amendment to a funding
   bill for the Energy Department.

   The issue of LGBT rights emerged as a potent political issue this year,
   after North Carolina passed a bill that mandates transgender people use
   public bathrooms of their original sex, instead of their chosen gender
   identity. The Obama administration and North Carolina are embroiled in
   a legal battle over the state's new law.

   Conservative lawmakers in the House did succeed in passing a bill that
   would make sure federal funding isn't taken away from North Carolina
   because of the state's bathroom law.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-house-passes-bill-combating-lgbt-d
   iscrimination/3346737.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-house-passes-bill-combating-lgbt-discrimination/3346737.html