In Bostock v. Clayton County, the United States Supreme Court ruled, this week,
that the federal employment discrimination statute (Title VII) barred discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in places of employment.
A fascinating aspect of the case is both parties agreed the term “sex,” in the law (1964 Civil Rights Act), referred only to the then generally accepted biological definition separating men and women.
In high drama, the attorney for the aggrieved transgender female opened his oral argument before the Court by saying, “When an employer fires a male employee for dating men but does not fire female employees who date men, he violates Title VII.”
The discrimination is
based on sex because the male employee’s failure to conform to a particular
expectation about how men should behave; namely, that men should be attracted only
to women and not to men.
With this new discrimination ruling, the Court moves the needle forward against an-all-too-common backdrop of unbridled and discriminatory police misconduct against black and brown citizens.
