Democrats in Congress plan to reintroduce legislation this month that would ban LGBT discrimination nationwide, despite facing a conservative majority that's been generally hostile toward the issue.

While the bill has little shot of passage, progressives hope inaction by Republicans can illustrate a chasm between the major political parties as they approach the 2018 midterm election.

"It's important for Americans to know whether members of Congress support full equality for our community or whether they support continued discrimination against LGBT Americans," Rhode Island's David Cicilline, a Democrat who will sponsor the bill in the House, told BuzzFeed News.

A companion bill will be reintroduced in the Senate by Oregon's Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, who said colleagues opposed to the bill "should have to stand up and explain why.”

Dozens of Democrats sponsored similar legislation in 2015, with a small harmony of support across the aisle, marking the most sweeping effort to date to provide LGBT civil rights. But Republican leaders never gave it a committee hearing. Rep. Cicilline argued that opponents should pay a political price if they continue to blockade the bill, saying, "If Republicans in Washington want to keep standing in the doorway of opportunity, they'll have to answer to their constituents in just two short years."

The Equality Act, as it's known, would amend existing civil rights laws to add protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in workplaces, housing, and public spaces.

It would also clarify that transgender students can use single-sex facilities in schools in accordance with their gender identity, possibly settling a dispute tangled in courts.