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(ungrex s the lilnite Stuteslffiufingfun, E( 515March 20,2013

President Barack ObamaThe V/hite House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NV/Washington, DC 20500Dear Mr. President:

V/e write to thank you for your continued leadership on behalf of all lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans. We believe that a fully inclusive America benefitsus all and that sexual orientation and gender identity should never be used to discriminate inemployment practices. For that reason, we request that you make signing an executive order thatwould prohibit federal contractors from discriminating in the worlace based on an individual'ssexual orientation or gender identity an initial priority of your second term.Our request begins with a simple premise. It is unacceptable that it remains legal to fireor refuse to hire someone based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. Federal lawcontinues to allow this and discrimination based on sexual orientation is legal in 29 states anddiscrimination because of gender identity is legal in 34 states. Action at the federal level can puta stop to these unfair and discriminatory workplace practices in every state.

Last year, many of us wrote to you, 72 members of the House of Representatives in total,requesting that you sign an executive order that would require any company seeking a federalcontract to have adopted worlace policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation orgender identity. We remain committed to passage of the Employee Non-Discrimination Act(ENDA), which would ban employment discrimination based on an individual's sexualorientation or gender identity. However, you can take action today to help prevent these types ofunfair labor practices and to lay the groundwork for passage of ENDA.Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and subsequentlyamended, prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on race,color, religion, sex or national origin. The executive order gave millions important workplaceprotections and to this day continues to stand as an important protection that is enforced by theOffice of Federal Contract Compliance Programs at the Department of Labor. According to theWilliams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, an executive order prohibiting federalcontractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity would protectmore than 16 million additional workers.Even without federal action, many companies are acting responsibly and institutingworlace policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity. In fact, nearly 88 percentof Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their worlace policies and 57 percentinclude gender identity. Companies are taking this action because they know that adopting thesepolicies will help them attract the best talent, reduce employee turnover and add to their bottomlines.

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Still, research has shown that 43 percent of LGBT people and 90 percent of transgenderpeople have experienced worlace discrimination. This data reinforces our general premise thatno American should be subject to worlace discrimination because of his or her sexualorientation or gender identity. With a majority of American workers living in states that havenot passed laws granting LGBT employees legal protections from workplace discrimination, anexecutive order will provide broad protections that will level the playing field.

We thank you for considering our request. We also reafhrm our commitment to workingwith you to ensure that members of the LGBT community receive the same protections andopportunities as all other Americans. Thank you again for your leadership on advancing LGBTequality, and we look forward to working with you on passage of ENDA to establish permanentLGBT worlace protections for our federal employees.Sincerely,2,*!, lJx-lRANK PALLONE, JR. IMember of Congress I #"P.tember of Congress

k/"4ember of Congress(),-q ObJ,IDY CHUMember of Congress

*C.r"OIS CAPPSMember of Congress

P. MORANber of Congress

RICK LARSENMember of Congress

ADAM SCHIFFMember of Congress

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MIANA DEGETTEMember of CongressADAM SMITHMember of Congress

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