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It may come as a surprise to some that, until now, the federal government allowed employment discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The Fight for Equality Just Won a Huge Victory
There’s a lot of bad news out there, but I hope we’ll celebrate amid the pain.
Jun 17, 2020
This moment in our nation's history is marked by pain and uprising.
Infections and deaths from the coronavirus are occurring at heartbreaking rates. Cities and small towns are on fire, figuratively and literally, as police brutality against black people has finally reached a tipping point. Black transgender people are targeted and murdered by police and private citizens alike.
In the midst of this, a stunning victory has been won for human and civil rights in the United States: On June 15th, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision stating that people who are transgender, gay, lesbian, queer, or intersex can't be fired from their job simply because they belong to one or more of those categories.
This historic decision was achieved by an astonishing 6-3 vote in a conservative court, written and delivered by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch. It makes clear that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment, now applies to people with any sexual orientation or gender identity.
In short, it codifies that people are people and deserve human and civil rights.
This is huge. I would argue it's even bigger than the marriage equality decision of 2015, though it couldn't have happened without it. Not everyone desires to be married, and marriage isn't a necessity for survival. But safe and gainful employment, free of discrimination, is.
It may come as a surprise to some that, until now, the federal government allowed employment discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. But while some states fully prohibit the practice, a majority do not. The rules on LGBTQ workers are a patchwork of selective protections and outright discrimination across the country.
No more.
Well, almost. Gorsuch did include a carve-out for religious exemption. This is a serious and concerning carve-out that must be remedied by Congress, and will be litigated.
Importantly, although this ruling pertains to Title VII, which is the unemployment discrimination section of the Civil Rights Act, it also places sexual orientation and gender identity firmly in the federal legal definition of "sex."
This is of vital importance, as it puts the heft of Supreme Court law behind this definition. That could also inform rules on sex discrimination in areas such as housing, education, health care, and even in the occupying of public spaces, among other areas where the rights of transgender people in particular have long been violated.
The Trump administration has been aggressive in its attempts to roll back every protection won during the Obama administration for transgender people. Most recently, Trump announced a rule to roll back protections for transgender people included in the Affordable Care Act.
This ruling all but negates those attempts.
It isn't automatic, and there are still court battles to be fought, but this decision puts some very big boxing gloves on organizations like the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Transgender Law Center, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign as they fight for decency, human rights, and equality under the law for all people.
Transgender people, and especially black transgender people, face the most poverty, the most abuse, among the greatest barriers to health care, and the highest rates of targeted murder of any population in the United States. As such, amid the ongoing unrest, this ruling was also a significant affirmation that black lives matter.
There's a lot of bad news out there, but I hope we'll celebrate amid the pain. May this be the first of many victories in the fight toward equality in this country.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Karen Dolan
Karen Dolan is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and directs the Criminalization of Poverty project there. She is author of "The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty."
This moment in our nation's history is marked by pain and uprising.
Infections and deaths from the coronavirus are occurring at heartbreaking rates. Cities and small towns are on fire, figuratively and literally, as police brutality against black people has finally reached a tipping point. Black transgender people are targeted and murdered by police and private citizens alike.
In the midst of this, a stunning victory has been won for human and civil rights in the United States: On June 15th, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision stating that people who are transgender, gay, lesbian, queer, or intersex can't be fired from their job simply because they belong to one or more of those categories.
This historic decision was achieved by an astonishing 6-3 vote in a conservative court, written and delivered by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch. It makes clear that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment, now applies to people with any sexual orientation or gender identity.
In short, it codifies that people are people and deserve human and civil rights.
This is huge. I would argue it's even bigger than the marriage equality decision of 2015, though it couldn't have happened without it. Not everyone desires to be married, and marriage isn't a necessity for survival. But safe and gainful employment, free of discrimination, is.
It may come as a surprise to some that, until now, the federal government allowed employment discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. But while some states fully prohibit the practice, a majority do not. The rules on LGBTQ workers are a patchwork of selective protections and outright discrimination across the country.
No more.
Well, almost. Gorsuch did include a carve-out for religious exemption. This is a serious and concerning carve-out that must be remedied by Congress, and will be litigated.
Importantly, although this ruling pertains to Title VII, which is the unemployment discrimination section of the Civil Rights Act, it also places sexual orientation and gender identity firmly in the federal legal definition of "sex."
This is of vital importance, as it puts the heft of Supreme Court law behind this definition. That could also inform rules on sex discrimination in areas such as housing, education, health care, and even in the occupying of public spaces, among other areas where the rights of transgender people in particular have long been violated.
The Trump administration has been aggressive in its attempts to roll back every protection won during the Obama administration for transgender people. Most recently, Trump announced a rule to roll back protections for transgender people included in the Affordable Care Act.
This ruling all but negates those attempts.
It isn't automatic, and there are still court battles to be fought, but this decision puts some very big boxing gloves on organizations like the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Transgender Law Center, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign as they fight for decency, human rights, and equality under the law for all people.
Transgender people, and especially black transgender people, face the most poverty, the most abuse, among the greatest barriers to health care, and the highest rates of targeted murder of any population in the United States. As such, amid the ongoing unrest, this ruling was also a significant affirmation that black lives matter.
There's a lot of bad news out there, but I hope we'll celebrate amid the pain. May this be the first of many victories in the fight toward equality in this country.
Karen Dolan
Karen Dolan is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and directs the Criminalization of Poverty project there. She is author of "The Poor Get Prison: The Alarming Spread of the Criminalization of Poverty."
This moment in our nation's history is marked by pain and uprising.
Infections and deaths from the coronavirus are occurring at heartbreaking rates. Cities and small towns are on fire, figuratively and literally, as police brutality against black people has finally reached a tipping point. Black transgender people are targeted and murdered by police and private citizens alike.
In the midst of this, a stunning victory has been won for human and civil rights in the United States: On June 15th, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision stating that people who are transgender, gay, lesbian, queer, or intersex can't be fired from their job simply because they belong to one or more of those categories.
This historic decision was achieved by an astonishing 6-3 vote in a conservative court, written and delivered by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch. It makes clear that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in employment, now applies to people with any sexual orientation or gender identity.
In short, it codifies that people are people and deserve human and civil rights.
This is huge. I would argue it's even bigger than the marriage equality decision of 2015, though it couldn't have happened without it. Not everyone desires to be married, and marriage isn't a necessity for survival. But safe and gainful employment, free of discrimination, is.
It may come as a surprise to some that, until now, the federal government allowed employment discrimination based on someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. But while some states fully prohibit the practice, a majority do not. The rules on LGBTQ workers are a patchwork of selective protections and outright discrimination across the country.
No more.
Well, almost. Gorsuch did include a carve-out for religious exemption. This is a serious and concerning carve-out that must be remedied by Congress, and will be litigated.
Importantly, although this ruling pertains to Title VII, which is the unemployment discrimination section of the Civil Rights Act, it also places sexual orientation and gender identity firmly in the federal legal definition of "sex."
This is of vital importance, as it puts the heft of Supreme Court law behind this definition. That could also inform rules on sex discrimination in areas such as housing, education, health care, and even in the occupying of public spaces, among other areas where the rights of transgender people in particular have long been violated.
The Trump administration has been aggressive in its attempts to roll back every protection won during the Obama administration for transgender people. Most recently, Trump announced a rule to roll back protections for transgender people included in the Affordable Care Act.
This ruling all but negates those attempts.
It isn't automatic, and there are still court battles to be fought, but this decision puts some very big boxing gloves on organizations like the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Transgender Law Center, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Human Rights Campaign as they fight for decency, human rights, and equality under the law for all people.
Transgender people, and especially black transgender people, face the most poverty, the most abuse, among the greatest barriers to health care, and the highest rates of targeted murder of any population in the United States. As such, amid the ongoing unrest, this ruling was also a significant affirmation that black lives matter.
There's a lot of bad news out there, but I hope we'll celebrate amid the pain. May this be the first of many victories in the fight toward equality in this country.
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