The Supreme Court has just voted on a decision citing that if someone is fired from the workplace for being gay or transgender (LGBTQ), it is a direct violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects people from employer sex discrimination along with protecting people from discrimination based on color, race, national origin or religion.
Judge Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee and who wrote the court’s opinion on the matter, argued that “ours is a society of written laws,” adding that “judges are not free to overlook plain statutory commands on the strength of nothing more than suppositions about intentions or guesswork about expectations.” The court added that “in Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire an employee.”
The court concluded that they “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 that law.”
In coming to the 6-3 conclusive vote, the Court justified the decision by focusing on the language of Title VII, which states that no individual will be discriminated against “because of” sex, arguing that if sex is the factor of the discrimination then it is a direct violation of Title VII.
Regarding the Court’s vote in favor of LGBTQ+ rights, Judge Kavanaugh commented that “notwithstanding my concern about the Court’s transgression of the Constitution’s separation of powers, it is appropriate to acknowledge the important victory achieved today by gay and lesbian Americans.” He added that “millions of gay and lesbian Americans have worked hard for many decades to achieve equal treatment in fact and in law,” noting that “they have exhibited extraordinary vision, tenacity and grit – battling often steep odds in the legislative and judicial arenas, not to mention in their daily lives.”
Ultimately, Kavanaugh expressed that “they have advanced powerful policy arguments and can take pride in today’s result.”
