For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Gerard, sgerard@americanhumanist.org
(Washington, DC, June 15, 2020) – Leaders of the American Humanist Association (AHA) are celebrating today’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, GA (and consolidated cases) in which a court majority ruled that sexual orientation and transgender status are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“This ruling is an important step forward during a time when we are seeing regression at every turn. Just days after Trump’s disheartening decision to withdraw safeguards for transgender people against sex discrimination in healthcare, the highest court in the land demonstrates there’s still hope for justice by recognizing civil rights employment protections for the LGBTQ community,” declared AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt. “Even with the Religious Right entrenched in Washington, DC, progress can still happen.”
Recently, a number of lower appeals courts have excluded sexual orientation discrimination from Title VII protections. Twenty-one states have laws prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, which remain implemented, but Bostock now means federal law provides similar protection for LGBTQ employees across the country.
“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,” Speckhardt concluded. “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. There is still a long way to go to achieve LGBTQ equality and so we must coalesce to continue to seek justice for all.”
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The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.