The Human Right Campaign and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) staged a rally on Capitol Hill to ask Congress for a federal law making it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals in the workplace. Some two hundred parents and friends of gays and lesbians attended the event to make the statement that “discrimination against gay people is a family issue,” according to Human Rights Campaign communications director David Smith.
In 1994, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the measure that would bar employers from taking sexual orientation into account when hiring, firing, or promoting workers. The bill has 21 supporters in the Senate and 131 in the House. Elizabeth Birch, president of the Human Rights Campaign, urged the rally attendees to be persistent in the fight, noting it took 38 years of lobbying for women to win the right to vote.
