WASHINGTON — A coalition of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, PFLAG National, National Black Justice Coalition and National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, hailed today's reintroduction of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Senate.

The groups released the following statement on the bill’s reintroduction:

“This legislation aims to protect ballot access for everyone, especially marginalized populations such as LGBTQ+ people, BIPOC people, the elderly, low-income people, and people with disabilities — rights that have been under threat in recent years from anti-equality lawmakers pushing for polling site closures, purges to voter rolls, laws designed to make voting more difficult, and other voter suppression efforts.

“If we lose our voting rights, every other right we have can be taken from us. Anti-democratic forces have been fighting for decades to erase the hard-won victories earned in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the pace of those assaults have only increased in many anti-equality state legislatures in recent years. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is the key to preserving our voting rights and ensuring that victories in other areas—including the march toward LGBTQ+ equality—will become reality. We thank the bill’s sponsors for bringing forth this desperately needed piece of legislation.”

The VRAA was reintroduced in the House in September 2023 by Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama.

Passage of the VRAA would correct Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court decision that improperly stripped away key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It restores the protections of the Voting Rights Act by:

• Modernizing the VRA’s formula determining which states and localities have a pattern of discrimination;

• Ensuring that last-minute voting changes do not adversely affect voters by requiring officials to publicly announce all voting changes at least 180 days before an election; and

• Expanding the government’s authority to send federal observers to any jurisdiction where there may be a substantial risk of discrimination at the polls on Election Day or during an early voting period.

Many in the LGBTQ+ community—especially LGBTQ+ people of color—endure and fear discrimination while accessing the right to vote. A 2019 HRC Foundation survey found that:

• Fear of or experiencing discrimination led 22% of LGBTQ+ adults, 35% of LGBTQ+ adults of color, 49% of transgender adults, and 55% of transgender adults of color to avoid voting in at least one election in their lives.

• An issue with meeting voter identification requirements prevented 24% of LGBTQ+ adults, 35% of LGBTQ+ people of color, 42% of transgender people from voting in at least one election in their lives.

• Furthermore, 46% of transgender people of color said they did not vote in one or more elections in their lives specifically because their I.D. had an incorrect gender marker, name, or photo.