Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement to commend President Barack Obama on his executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers.

In most states, companies still have the ability to fire their workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

“I want to commend President Obama for his efforts to protect LGBT workers from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. President Obama had to act, because Congress failed to act,” said Congresswoman Clarke, who has co-sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend these protections to every worker in the United States. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have refused to allow a vote on the bill. A version of the bill has already passed in the Senate.

“We must remember our history. Our federal agencies and our armed forces were desegregated by executive orders, because Congress at that time refused to end to evil of racial discrimination. Therefore, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry S Truman had to act. President Obama today has followed a similar course.”

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.