Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Court: Law protects LGBTQ workers
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal law forbids employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity status — a landmark victory for advocates of LGBTQ rights.
The decision found that the barring of workforce discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex guaranteed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also covers sexual orientation and transgender status. It upheld rulings from lower courts that said discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community is a form of sex discrimination.
The ruling is significant for Pennsylvania, where no such state-level protections exist for private sector workers.
Conservative justices John
Roberts and Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberal justices in the 6 to 3 ruling. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
“Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear,” Gorsuch wrote. “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.”
The court combined two cases to consider whether LGBTQ workers are protected under the law. The first was a pair of lawsuits from gay men — Gerald Bostock and the late Donald Zarda — who said they were fired because of their sexual orientation.
The second was a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman, the late Aimee Stephens, who argued her employer fired her when she announced that she would start wearing women’s clothing to work.
Lawyers for the employers and the Trump administration argued that the common understanding of sex discrimination set forth in 1964 was bias against women or men and did not include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. If Congress wanted to protect homosexual and transgender workers, they said, it could pass a new law.
Lawyers for the workers responded that discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status inescapably intends to rely on sex in its decision making.
Michelle Dech, executive director of the LGBT Center of Greater Reading, said the Supreme Court ruling is a historical milestone.
“This is a great day,” she said. “The most important thing is that it will ensure that every day Americans are able to make a living without fear of discrimination.”
Dech said that, unfortunately, this kind of discrimination happens in Berks County more than people might think.
“Most people think that because we were granted the right to marry that we have all the protections as everyone else — and we don’t,” she said. “We can still be fired, we can still be evicted, we can be told to leave restaurants. So this is a big step in the right direction.”
Across the country, 21 states have their own laws prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Pennsylvania is one of eight states that provides that protection only to public employees. Four other states protect
public employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation but not gender identity.
Seventeen states offer no such protection.
For years, a group of Keystone State lawmakers have attempted to pass the P.A. Fairness Act that would prohibit housing and employment discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community. But the effort has been tangled in a debate over whether the law should make exceptions for religious employers and organizations.
In the meantime, more than 40 municipalities have enacted their own ordinances banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. Reading has been on that list since 2009.
Monday’s ruling means federal law now provides workplace protections nationwide.
“This is a huge victory for LGBTQ equality,” said James Esseks of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The Supreme Court’s clarification that it’s unlawful to fire people because they’re LGBTQ is the result of decades of advocates fighting for our rights. The court has caught up to the majority of our country, which already knows that discriminating against LGBTQ people is both unfair and against the law.”
Esseks added that while this ruling is a step forward, there are still significant gaps in federal civil rights law that Congress must fill by passing the Equality Act.
“Our work is not done,” he said.”Today’s decision should mean that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination not only in employment, but in every context under federal law where sex discrimination is prohibited. In addition to employment, federal laws against sex discrimination cover housing, education, health care, jury service and credit.”
Dech agrees that there is still work to be done at both the federal and state level.
“We see this as a path forward to further protections, and when I say further protections I mean the protections that everyone else is granted,” she said. “We think this ruling will have a positive impact on legislation that will some of those gaps moving forward. This is significant and this is something to celebrate.”