Businesses ask high court to consider gay rights case

WASHINGTON — Some of America’s most well-known companies are urging the Supreme Court to rule that a federal employment discrimination law prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation, a position opposite of the one taken by the Trump administration.

The 76 businesses and organizations — including American Airlines, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Starbucks and Microsoft — filed a brief Wednesday encouraging the court to take up the issue. They want it to take a case out of Georgia in which a gay woman who worked as a hospital security officer says she was harassed and punished for dressing in a male uniform and wearing her hair short. Jameka Evans, who worked at Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah from 2012 to 2013, left her job and sued.

The question is whether a federal law barring workplace discrimination “because of ... sex” covers discrimination against someone because of sexual orientation. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President Barack Obama took the view that it does. But President Donald Trump’s administration has argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on gender but doesn’t cover sexual orientation.

The businesses’ filing says they and their employees would benefit if the court agreed to take the case and rule that Title VII covers sexual orientation discrimination.

“Businesses’ firsthand experiences — supported by extensive social-science research — confirm the significant costs for employers and employees when sexual orientation discrimination is not forbidden by a uniform law, even where other policies exist against such discrimination,” the businesses wrote in their brief.

The organizations that joined the brief include two sports teams, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Miami Heat.