District of Columbia Expands Human Rights Act's Employee Protections

Author: Marta Moakley, XpertHR Legal Editor

February 2, 2015

The District of Columbia has expanded its discrimination protections after Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Human Rights Amendment Act (HRAA) and the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act (RHNAA) last week. The amendments would protect employees from workplace bias based on reproductive health decisions and also cover employees of religiously affiliated educational institutions from discrimination based on sexual orientation. The HRAA also contains requirements that the annual report include information on investigations and public hearings undertaken by the Office of Human Rights (OHR) and that the Director have a demonstrated professional background in human rights law.

The HRAA was introduced in response to the Armstrong Act's limitation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA). Specifically, the Armstrong Act, also known as the Nation's Capital Religious Liberty and Academic Freedom Act, was enacted in 1988 to protect a religiously affiliated educational institution from the requirement that it tolerate groups or policies that would go against its tenets.

The Armstrong Amendment was passed directly in response to an appellate court decision in Gay Rights Coalition of Georgetown University v. Georgetown University that found Georgetown University, a Roman Catholic and Jesuit educational institution, to be in violation of the DCHRA due to its different treatment of a gay student group. However, the HRAA would nullify such an exception based on religious affiliation.

The RHNAA protects an employee from discrimination based on his or her reproductive health decisions, including a decision to use or access a:

• Particular drug;
• Device; or
• Medical service.

Based on the RHNAA, an employer will be prohibited from treating an employee differently based on his or her electing a procedure such as in vitro fertilization or accessing birth control through an employer-sponsored health plan.

Religiously affiliated educational institutions located in the District of Columbia, such as Georgetown University or the Catholic University of America, would be affected by the changes. However, the amendments are not currently in effect: the measures must first go through a 30-day period of Congressional review and then be published in the District of Columbia Register.