From the same article:
Lankford isn't the only freshman Republican to express opposition to this type of bill. Last week, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said such protections were unnecessary because discrimination based on sexual orientation simply didn't happen.
"That don’t happen out here in the United States of America," he told ThinkProgress. (Is that really the grammar he used?)

Anyone here want to dispute the moronic Republican Member of Congress from Florida? His words remind me of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claims that there are no gays in Iran, except when they get hanged for it.
West's very denial of the existence of discrimination against gays is itself a form of discrimination. I'm old enough to remember how US southern Whites contended there was no discrimination against Blacks, despite segregated schools, sitting at the back of the bus, separate rest rooms and drinking fountains for whites and coloreds, separate lunch counters, KKK murders and attacks, Jim Crow laws and other segregation and discrimination.
Yet it remains legal in many states to fire someone simply for being gay, to evict a tenant for being gay, to deny that hate crimes are committed against gays. Nope, there's no gay discrimination to see here, move along.