JEFFERSON CITY — A Ballwin Republican said Wednesday that there was growing support in Missouri for legislation to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Rep. , R-Ballwin, said he was filing the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, or MONA, for the legislative session that begins next month after its former sponsor, state Rep. Tom Hannegan, R-St. Charles, died in October of a stroke.
“We’ve got a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who’ve been having conversations in the last few weeks — really productive conversations — about how to get more of our Republican colleagues on board without losing our Democratic colleagues’ support,†Dogan told the Post-Dispatch.
People are also reading…
Dogan, who is running as a Republican for ºüÀêÊÓƵ County executive next year, said he wasn’t going to state how many lawmakers were in the coalition but said “it’s got more progress than it has in the past.â€
He said he has spoken with GOP leadership about the working group.
“They’re aware of the fact that we do have this group of people who’ve been talking about it, and you know, when the time is right I think we will have some more in-depth conversations about what a pathway to this bill making progress is,†Dogan said.
The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act has languished in the Legislature for nearly a quarter century, unable to overcome opposition from more conservative lawmakers.
forbids discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex and disability. It also outlaws age discrimination in employment and familial status discrimination in housing.
Dogan’s proposal would ban discrimination in housing, financial assistance, employment and access to public accommodations based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Hannegan this year moved to yank his legislation from the House Children and Families Committee after it went six weeks without a hearing.
that using a parliamentary maneuver, Hannegan was able to place the legislation on the House’s debate calendar; it did not advance any further this year.
“The people who have opposed the bill in past years have had lots of different reasons for their opposition,†Dogan said.
“First and foremost it’s about religious liberty,†he said. “I think we already do have pretty substantial religious liberty protections when it comes to our anti-discrimination statutes, but anything we can do to clarify that and to assuage peoples’ concerns — I’m willing to listen.â€