The United States Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender workers from being fired based on their sexualities.
Specifically, the protections are rooted in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination of any kind based on a person’s sex. President Donald Trump’s administration attempted to argue before the court that sex-based discrimination protections did not apply to a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In a 6-3 decision, the highest legal authority in the country disagreed.
“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” Justice Niel Gorsuch wrote in the decision.
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Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court’s four liberal-leaning justices to comprise the majority ruling.
“An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law,” the decision stated.
There are more than 8 million LGBTQ individuals currently working in the US whose jobs will be protected by Monday’s result.
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