Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 entitled Unlawful Employment Practices provides in relevant part:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer—to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
42 U.S. Code § 2000e–2
In a recent decision, the US Supreme Court extended the protections afforded employees under Title VII to individuals identifying as gay or transgender. That decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, consolidated three cases in which the plaintiffs were fired for being gay or transgender. A copy of the decision 590 U. S. ____ (2020) can be found here: https://spelusolawoffice.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/17-1618_hfci.pdf.
The Court stated:
Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. 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. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.
The record showed that in each of the three cases the employer fired a long-time employee shortly after the employee revealed that he or she is homosexual or transgender. Other than the employee’s homosexuality or transgender status there was no reason for the discharge. The decision of the Court turned on the interpretation of the meaning of “sex.”
The Court found that sex extends beyond biological distinctions between male and female stating that: “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.” The Court found unpersuasive that homosexuality and transgender status aren’t referred to as sex discrimination in ordinary conversation.
As the Court summarized:
In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.