Our Plan to Institute LGBTQIA+ Protections for Missourians

By Elad Gross, Candidate for Missouri Attorney General

Today, Missourians can be fired, denied housing, prevented from accessing basic equality under the law, or otherwise discriminated against because of who they are.

That’s wrong. It’s wrong to deny our family members, friends, and neighbors basic human rights. It’s wrong to treat hard working Americans who serve our state in so many ways — as first responders, members of government, teachers, food service workers, doctors, small business owners, you name it — as second-class citizens. It leaves incredibly talented people with no choice but to make their homes outside of Missouri. That weakens our community and damages our economy.

Here’s how we’re going to fix it:

1. When we take back the Attorney General’s Office, we will implement the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act (MONA) in the office. We have tried to pass a law preventing discrimination for 21 years and failed each time. If our legislature won’t do it, the Attorney General can enact it as policy. We won’t discriminate in that office.
2. We will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act the way our federal and state Supreme Courts have said we ought to: The law protects people, regardless of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. We will make sure employers, landlords, lenders, and places of public accommodation are not engaging in discriminatory behavior that violates the rights of fellow Missourians and damages our economy.
3. We will use Missouri’s consumer protection laws to help end discrimination in our state and keep Missourians safe from exploitation, including from dangerous so-called conversion therapy scams.
4. We will work with community partners, law enforcement, and prosecutors to ensure that victims and survivors of discrimination and hate crimes can access the justice they deserve.
5. We will work with the legislature to advocate for reforms that protect the civil rights of all Missourians.
6. We will create and fully staff a Civil Rights Division at the Attorney General’s Office. We need an Attorney General willing to protect the rights of the people, not the money of the powerful.

It’s well past time we ensure that every Missourian has protection under the law. We need to stop excluding each other from all that our state has to offer. When we include more voices and more experiences in our state, we all do better. And when we take back the Attorney General’s Office, we will fight for that reality every day.

You can join that fight at EladGross.org.