Firms ask high court to take gay rights case
WASHINGTON — Some of America’s most wellknown 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 filed a brief Wednesday encouraging the high court to take up the issue. They want the court 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, ultimately left her job and sued.
The question is whether a federal law barring workplace discrimination “because of sex” covers discrimination against someone because of their 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, not sexual orientation.
The businesses’ court 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. The organizations that joined the brief include two sports teams, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Miami Heat.
Most federal appeals courts in the past have ruled that “sex” means biological gender. But a federal appeals court in Chicago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, ruled this year that the law covers sexual orientation. The New Yorkbased U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is also weighing the issue.