Trump’s Panties in a Twist: SCOTUS Rules Employers Cannot Fire Individuals for Being LGBTQ +

Daily Beast: In an historic win for the LGBTQ community, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that firing someone for being gay or trans violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch—a Trump nominee promoted by the right-wing Federalist Society—wrote the opinion, which Chief Justice Roberts and the four liberal justices joined.

While acknowledging that Congress did not have LGBTQ+ people in mind when it passed the law in 1964, Gorsuch—true to form—focused on the written text of the law, which contains a broad prohibition on discriminating “because of sex.” That means that any time sex (as defined, in biological terms, in 1964) is part of the reason for a hiring or firing decision, that decision is illegal. So, for example, “If the employer fires the male employee for no reason other than the fact he is attracted to men, the employer discriminates against him for traits or actions it tolerates in his female colleague.”

More broadly, Gorsuch concluded, “An individual’s homosexuality or transgender status is not relevant to employment decisions.”