August 18, 2021

Maine Small Business Leaders Urge Senators Collins, King to Support Equality Act

BANGOR, MAINE — During a roundtable discussion at the Health Equity Alliance yesterday, leaders from Maine’s small business community discussed the importance of the U.S. Senate passing the Equality Act and called on U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to get behind the historic legislation that will extend civil rights protections to members of the LGBTQ community and expand existing protections against discrimination for women and people of color.

In endorsing the Equality Act, the small business leaders join the majority of Americans, hundreds of members of Congress, and more than 600 organizations, including civil rights, education, health care, and faith-based organizations. Nearly 500 major U.S. businesses – including dozens of Fortune 500 companies – and more than 60 business associations have also publicly supported the federal legislation.

A recording of Thursday’s roundtable discussion can be found here. Speakers’ remarks — in support of the Equality Act — came from:

Ash Cardurns, New Progress Psychiatry (Bangor): “When we’re feeling secure and happy and healthy, we’re able to participate in our jobs and our family and are able to raise healthier next generations. As a mental health provider, I just see how discrimination prone to acute stress shows up for people on a day-to-day basis, and it might not be in the forefront of their mind, but it is constantly lingering.”

Charlie Zorich, The Hichborn (Stockton Springs): “We’ve definitely created a safe space within our business, and, you know, even though we’re a small restaurant, we draw from a pretty broad area. We often get comments tableside about the fact that people feel comfortable...Discrimination is still very real, it exists, and it’s definitely present. Having protections like this will make a huge difference.”

Laurie Osher, Osher Environment Systems (Orono): “I recall a time when I came out, before some of you were born that other lesbians and gay people, especially lesbians, would not speak to me in my workplace because they did not want to be implicated. So they were afraid that by being associated with me as an out person that they would then lose their job. And they had some reason for those fears because, as a person who has been always out in the workplace, I ended up being the target of the people who are rude and who are homophobic. And so, I support the Equality Act because that behavior is not good. It’s not good for businesses, it’s not good for people.”

Jen Shepard, Penobscot Theatre Company (Bangor): “This issue isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of moral duty. My identity as a queer person is not a choice. It’s who I am at my core, and we live in a system that is inherently structured around discriminating against people like me. It’s about time we start the work of dismantling this flawed system and evaluating how we can build a society that is just equal. And I ask my legislators that they take the first step by supporting the Equality Act.”

Sam Bullard, Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine (Bangor): “My fiance’s a middle school teacher. And being able to, you know, not have to go to work in fear of slipping something to your students that they go home and tell their parents who will call and complain to the school and then potentially lose your job. That’s a very real fear for a lot of people. They don’t have the control to say, ‘This is my business.’ You’re at the hands of someone else without these protections.”

###

About the Equality Act
Currently, 29 states do not have laws that explicitly protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. Without the Equality Act, LGBTQ Americans remain vulnerable to being evicted from their homes, kicked out of a business that’s open to the public, denied health care, or denied government services in a majority of states simply because of who they are. The Equality Act would provide clear, consistent non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people across critical areas, including housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service. The Equality Act also extends protections to millions of women — who aren’t covered by some existing federal anti-discrimination laws — to ensure they don’t have to live in fear of harassment or discrimination. In addition, it modernizes public accommodations law to provide increased protections to people of color and people of all faiths.

Freedom & Opportunity For All is a national campaign advocating for the urgent passage of the Equality Act — historic federal legislation that would modernize and improve our nation’s civil rights laws by including explicit, permanent protections for LGBTQ people, as well as women, people of color, and people of all faiths. The campaign — supported by hundreds of the nation’s top leaders in civil rights, faith, education, health care, and advocacy — is co-founded and led by 16 of the nation’s leading advocates for equality, including Center for American Progress; Equality Federation; Freedom for All Americans; GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders; GLSEN; Human Rights Campaign; Lambda Legal; National Black Justice Coalition; National Center for Lesbian Rights; National Center for Transgender Equality; National LGBTQ Task Force; National Women's Law Center; PFLAG National; SAGE; Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund; and The Trevor Project. More information can be found at www.PassTheEqualityAct.com.