US Supreme Court rules LGBT people are protected from job discrimination
On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a huge win for the LGBT community!
Referencing from The Washington Post, “Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the court’s liberals in the 6 to 3 ruling. They said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” includes LGBTQ employees.”
Gorsuch wrote for the court:
“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,”
Gorsuch also mentioned that Monday's decision is not likely to be the court's last word regarding to the issues around LGBT rights.
This ruling is expected to have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers across the states because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination.
NBC New mentioned that LGBT rights group considered this even more important than the fight for marriage equality because not all LGBT members get married in America, most LGBT adults want or need a job. No more getting married on Sunday and getting fired on Monday.
According to Williams Institute at the UCLA law school, approximately 11.3 million LGBT people live in the U.S.
The law prohibits discrimination because of sex, but has no specific protection for sexual orientation or gender identity. In recent years, some lower courts have held that discrimination against LGBT people is a subset of sex discrimination, and thus prohibited by the federal law.
Two Cases Combined
The court combined two cases to consider whether gay workers are protected under the law:
Gerald Bostock claimed that he was fired from his job as a social worker in Clayton County, Ga., after he became more open about being gay, including joining a gay softball league.
Donald Zarda said he was fired as a skydiving instructor after joking with a female client to whom he was strapped for a tandem dive that he was gay. (Zarda died in 2014.)
For more information, please visit The Washington Post