Image Credit: Pexels.com (https://www.pexels.com/photo/alone-bed-bedroom-blur-271897/)
Usually, after my kids go to bed is when I write my blog posts for the following day. Last night that didn’t happen. Instead, while putting my two boys to bed, I fell asleep on the spare bed in their room. #Parenting
So, I apologize for the tardy post today. Continue reading
By U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/40th/panel/hopkins.html, Public Domain, Link
Yesterday’s blog post highlighted the blistering dissent of Eleventh Circuit judge Hon. Robin S. Rosenbaum, as she criticized her colleagues for passing on the opportunity to reconsider whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. In Judge Rosenbaum’s opinion, Title VII does afford those protections based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. In that case, the Court concluded that sex stereotyping violates Title VII. (It follows that Title VII precludes discrimination based on sexual orientation because of the failure to conform to the gender-based stereotype of loving someone of the opposite sex. Continue reading
By Eoghanacht [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
The issue this case raises—whether Title VII protects gay and lesbian individuals from discrimination because their sexual preferences do not conform to their employers’ views of whom individuals of their respective genders should love—is indisputably en-banc-worthy…. I cannot explain why a majority of our Court is content to rely on the precedential equivalent of an Edsel with a missing engine, when it comes to an issue that affects so many people.
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By Jeffrey Beall – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Link
Most of you have probably heard of the case that went to the Supreme Court involving a Colorado baker who would customize a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because he believed that doing so would violate his religious beliefs. The case is called Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Yesterday, in a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court sided with the baker.
Today, you’ll read headlines like, “Supreme Court sides with Colorado baker who refused to make wedding cake for same-sex couple” or “Supreme Court Hands Win To Baker Who Refused Service To Gay Couple”
But, don’t get it twisted. Continue reading
Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/en/pride-gay-nyc-new-york-city-flag-2444813/)
It took the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about 50 years to recognize that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
Now, in less than three years since the agency’s groundbreaking decision in 2015, two federal appellate courts have joined in concluding that sex discrimination under Title VII includes discrimination based on sexual orientation, as yesterday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. issued its long-awaited decision. Continue reading
Ironically, it happened on the same day that President Trump nominated U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner Chai Feldblum, a true champion of LGBT workplace rights, to serve a third term at the EEOC. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant certiorari in Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital.
In plain English, the Supreme Court passed.
Continue reading
Hi there.
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?
Notwithstanding Thursday’s feast, I rallied hard over the weekend. Indeed, I needed my energy up to check some boxes on my older daughter’s Christmas list. (She claims that number one is commonplace in Canada. I’m not so sure).
But, I’m taking a break from the shopping to wax employment law for you. Today, I want to get into LGBT rights at work. Continue reading
Back in July of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice officially revealed its position that nothing would prevent an employer from discriminating against a gay worker before of his sexual orientation. On that very same day, President Donald Trump tweeted that the military should ban transgender people from serving.
Fast forward to yesterday. In a move that surprised everyone, said absolutely no one, the DOJ issued this memo in which it posited that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal workplace anti-discrimination law, does not protect transgender workers from discrimination based on their gender identity per se. Continue reading
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission believes that discrimination based on LGBT status amounts to sex discrimination. Sex discrimination is unlawful under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
However, some recent comments imply that the EEOC’s position on LGBT rights at work may change.
Like, how about a full 180? Continue reading
On the same day that President Donald Trump tweeted that the military should ban transgender people from serving, the U.S. Department of Justice doubled down. That is, in a pleading filed yesterday in a federal appellate court, the United States of America revealed its position that our federal laws that protect against discrimination at work do not apply to gay employees.
Suffice it to say, yesterday was not a good day for the LGBT community. Continue reading
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