On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that LGBT employees are protected from any workplace discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, sided with the Court’s four liberal justices and the conservative-leaning chief justice John Roberts in the majority.
In the majority opinion, Gorsuch based his decision on the Title VII provision banning discrimination based on sex. Argueing that an employer who would fire a trans woman but not a cis woman is making a distinction based on sex assigned at birth, and therefore discrimination based on “traits or actions [an employer] would not have questioned in members of a different sex.”
The ruling has been celebrated by LGBT rights activists, and is a major victory for the LGBT community in the United States, although it has drawn criticism from republicans, with Sen Ted Cruz decried the ruling as the action of six “unelected” judges acting as “legislators” and argued Congress did not mean to outlaw discrimination against LGBT people in 1964 - Congress did pass the Equality Act in 2019, which would’ve ‘democratically’ banned such discrimination, but the bill still awaits a vote in the Republican held Senate.
The case made its way to the SCOTUS after two gay men and one trans woman sued their employers when they were fired in 2010, 2013 and 2014 - resulting in a historic, albeit belated ruling for the individuals and community as a whole
Harrison Moore
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