The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal law prohibits discrimination against workers for being LGBTQ. The ruling affirms long-sought federal protections for LGBTQ people in the workplace. The 6-3 decision, states that anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“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,” Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch stated. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”
Joining Gorsuch in the majority was U.S Chief Justice John Roberts as well as U.S. Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer.
Dissenting were U.S. Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
According to the Washington Blade: “The ruling doesn’t merely uphold the status quo, despite the widespread misconception anti-LGBTQ discrimination is already illegal. For the 29 states that lack state laws banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the workforce, the ruling affirms discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace is now illegal in those places and nationwide.”
