WASHINGTON â An extraordinarily large number of members of Congress wanted to testify at the first Senate hearing for a civil rights bill that would give LGBTQ people explicit legal protections from discrimination, and their messages set out the personal nature of the partisan split that will mean a tough path to becoming law. Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the first openly lesbian member of Congress, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that discrimination remains a daily reality for that community in employment, housing, public accommodations and education. Baldwin said passing the bill, known as the Equality Act, would expand a decades-old anti-discrimination law to cover more people in the majority of states where there arenât protections, not diminish the rights of others.