--- title: Obama Protects LGBT Workers With Executive Order description: Protects employees of federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity canonical: https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-21T16:38:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:15:33.912Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Protects LGBT Workers With Executive Order og:description: Protects employees of federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity og:url: https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf72611efdd4043d2/69869c81810bbb1bddc92ad1/obama_lgbt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: US President Barak Obama signs an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination during a ceremony in the the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 21, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Protects LGBT Workers With Executive Order twitter:description: Protects employees of federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf72611efdd4043d2/69869c81810bbb1bddc92ad1/obama_lgbt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Signs Executive Order on LGBT Job Discrimination > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 21, 2014 4:38 PM UTC  US President Barak Obama signs an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination during a ceremony in the the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 21, 2014. US President Barak Obama signs an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination during a ceremony in the the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 21, 2014. Shawn Thew—EPA by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 21, 2014 4:38 PM UTC President Obama signed an executive order Monday protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people working for government contractors from discrimination. The order protects any employee for a federal contractor from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identification. It covers about 28 million workers, making up one-fifth of the U.S. workforce, and includes no exemption for religious organizations. “It doesn’t make much sense, but today in America millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness that they could lose their job, not because of anything they do or fail to do but because of who they are,” the president told supporters at the White House, [CBS News reports](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-signs-act-to-protect-lgbt-federal-contractors/). “America’s federal contracts should not subsidize discrimination against the American people.” Many U.S. companies already offer protections for LGBT employees, according to [data highlighted by the Obama Administration](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/21/fact-sheet-taking-action-support-lgbt-workplace-equality-good-business-0). Some 91% of Fortune 500 companies already prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and 61% prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. The five top federal contractors–which get about a quarter of all federal contracting dollars–already prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Still, although many companies were already in support of protections, Obama’s order makes it official, and without exceptions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/"},"headline":"Obama Signs Executive Order on LGBT Job Discrimination","datePublished":"2014-07-21T16:38:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:15:33.912Z","description":"Protects employees of federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity","url":"https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/","keywords":["LGBT","White House","Obama","Workers","workforce"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf72611efdd4043d2/69869c81810bbb1bddc92ad1/obama_lgbt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf72611efdd4043d2/69869c81810bbb1bddc92ad1/obama_lgbt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barak Obama signs an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination during a ceremony in the the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 21, 2014.","caption":"US President Barak Obama signs an Executive Order to protect LGBT employees from workplace discrimination during a ceremony in the the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 21, 2014.","creditText":"Shawn Thew—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/lgbt/","name":"LGBT"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3012789/lgbt-workers/","name":"Obama Signs Executive Order on LGBT Job Discrimination"}}]}] ```