The Supreme Court of the United States made history yesterday when ruling that a 1964 civil rights law that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sex includes gay and transgender employees. The decision comes as Pride Month celebrations begin to kick off across the country.
The landmark 6-3 ruling was just as surprising as the fact that one of the Supreme Court's most conservative justices, the President Trump-nominated Neil Gorsuch, wrote the majority opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts, also a conservative, joined the liberal faction of the court in its ruling.
The particular law in question was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans employment discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex or national origin." Although over 25 states within the country lacked any sort of workplace protection for LGBTQ+ employees, this particular ruling was brought forward by two separate cases.
The first one involved a trans woman named Aimee Stephens who, in 2013, was fired from a funeral home in Michigan after telling her employer about her decision to openly live as a woman. The second case was a combination of two separate but similar situations: Gerald Bostock claimed to have been fired from his job as a social worker in Georgia after becoming more open about being gay. Donald Zarda, who passed away in 2014, also claimed to have been fired from his job as a skydiving instructor after joking about being gay.
In his opinion, Gorsuch wrote: "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."
Justices Samuel Alito Jr., Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas dissented, mentioning that the decision could potentially affect employers who don't support LGBTQ+ rights because of their religious beliefs.
Although there is a lot of work still to be done, the ruling has infused the American public with a sense of hope that many had lost following recent, more tragic events that have taken over the country.
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