• Local LGBT groups respond to historic court decision,
In southwestern Pennsylvania, as across the country, LGBTQ individuals and advocacy groups cheered Monday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from being discriminated against in the workplace. And they were shocked such a landmark decision came from such a conservative court.
“It’s a historic day for the community,” said Christine Bryan, marketing and development director for the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, which advocates for the LGBTQ community in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“It’s amazing. The fact it was 6-3, I don’t think anyone guessed that would happen. And to have Justice Neil Gorsuch write the opinion? And Chief Justice [John] Roberts, who ruled in the marriage equality case, continues to be a friend of the community.”
The court voted that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII, which bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBTQ workers.
“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,” Justice
Gorsuch wrote for the court. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”
Ms. Bryan said what was particularly striking about Monday’s ruling was that the Trump administration “has stacked the court against these kinds of rulings. Everyone has been nervous for three years.”
She added the ruling validated what was apparent to anyone who looked upon the cases objectively: “This is just about treating people equally. I think it’s a hard thing to argue against.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C., said in a statement the good news of the ruling couldn’t have come at a better time for a nation struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and a racial reckoning.
“The Supreme Court’s decision provides the nation with great news during a time when it is sorely needed,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the center. “To hear the highest court in the land say LGBTQ people are, and should be, protected from discrimination under federal law is a historic moment.”
The decision was a defeat not just for the employers but also the Trump administration, which argued the law’s plain wording compelled a ruling for the employers. Justice Gorsuch, a conservative appointee of President Donald Trump, concluded the opposite.
He was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberal members. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s other Supreme Court pick, dissented, along with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
“Aimee Stephens, Don Zarda and Gerald Bostock will have a place in the history books as people who stood up against discrimination and paved the way for groups historically excluded from legal protection,” Ms. Keisling said.
Today’s Supreme Court ruling blankets the country with one law regarding workplace discrimination, removing the scattershot approach states and municipalities have taken regarding LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections. For example, Pennsylvania is generally considered to have the weakest protections for LGBTQ individuals in the northeastern United States, according to the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, which bills itself as the leading statewide advocacy group for LGBTQ youth.
Other than marriage equality, there are currently in effect no state laws passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that explicitly provide for legal protections on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, the PYC said. However,
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and Philadelphia are among 58 political subdivisions in Pennsylvania that have adopted local nondiscrimination ordinances beginning in 1982. The flip side is that more than 2,500 Pennsylvania municipalities had no protections in place — until today.
That nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the workplace are the law of the land doesn’t mean the battle is over, Ms. Bryan and Ms. Keisling said.
“We still have more work to do to ensure that transgender people can fully live their lives without fear of discrimination for being who they are,” Ms. Keisling said.
The center’s statement said because gaps in civil rights law remain, “Congress should make absolutely clear that the same protections apply in housing and education, and extend them for the first time in public spaces and services and federally funded programs by passing the Equality Act.”
Ms. Bryan agreed: “From an immediate perspective, this is a landmark case and is wonderful for those in the workplace, but there is still work to be done in housing and health care, for example.
“The Equality Act will help that happen.”