Title VII bars LGBTQ bias, Supreme Court finds

The ban on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender identity, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unexpected 6-3 decision on June 15, 2020.

Facts

For the decision, the Court consolidated separate cases filed by former employees alleging sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status:

• In Bostock v. Clayton County, a long-term employee was fired shortly after he began participating in a gay recreational softball league.
• In Altitude Express, Inc., et al. v. Zarda, a skydiving instructor who had been employed for several seasons was fired after he mentioned he was gay.
• In R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, an employee, who presented as male when she was first employed, had worked for her employer for six years when she wrote a letter to her employer explaining she planned to "live and work full-time as a woman." She was fired shortly thereafter.

Essence of Court’s surprise ruling