The Economist by S.M. | ANN ARBOR Aug 9th 2019
The answer turns on whether Title VII protects gay and transgender employees from discriminationOVER HALF a century ago, Congress struck a blow for gender equality when it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of that law, which made it illegal for employers to discriminate “because of sexâ€, has been interpreted to uphold the rights of women to be hired for a so-called “man’s jobâ€; to get promotions without having to wear make-up or behave “more femininelyâ€; to work in offices where sexual favours are not an implicit job requirement; and not to be passed over for a position because they have young children. The courts have read the law to protect men, too. Sexual harassment of male employees counts as sex-based discrimination even if Congress was not contemplating that particular scourge when drafting the law.
Two more facets of workplace mistreatment, and flashpoints in the culture wars, will come before the Supreme Court in a pair of oral arguments on October 8th. Does Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination protect gay and lesbian people from being fired on the basis of their sexual orientation? Does it safeguard transgender workers from similar bias? The briefs for the plaintiffs in Altitude Express, Inc. v Zarda, Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are in—and they are persuasive.
The individuals at the centre of the cases are Gerald Bostock, a social worker in Georgia who was sacked after joining a gay softball league; Donald Zarda, a sky-diving instructor in New York whose sexual orientation also cost him his job (he has since died); and Aimee Stephens, an embalmer whose presentation as a transgender woman led to her dismissal from her position at a funeral home in Michigan. Mr Zarda and Ms Stephens won their cases in the Second and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals, respectively, while Mr Bostock lost his bid at the Eleventh Circuit.
More:
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/08/09/will-the-supreme-court-expand-protections-for-lgbt-workers
