States where you can get fired for being gay
Can you be fired for being gay? Answer depends largely on where you live
Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, garnered national attention this month after she returned to work at an evangelical Christian university that bars LGBTQ employees and students. While the Virginia school’s policies sparked criticism, they also highlighted the complicated patchwork of employment protections for womxn loving womxn, gay, bisexual and gender diverse workers across the country.
“If you are an LGBT employee in the U.S., you face a very complicated legal landscape when it comes to whether or not you can be discriminated against by a prospective employer,” Ineke Mushovic, executive director of Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank, told NBC News.
This “complicated legal landscape” involves conflicting court rulings, differing interpretations of civil rights laws by federal agencies, a patchwork of state laws and carve outs for religiously affiliated organizations.
THE COURTS
For starters, there is no federal law that expressly prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. However, LGBTQ workers across the U.S. have called upon Title VI
On August 23rd, 15 states filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to control against three individuals who were fired for organism LGBTQ. The three cases include the first gender diverse civil rights case to be heard by the high court on October 8th.
Officials in Texas, Nebraska, and Tennessee led the pro-discrimination effort. They successfully added the following 12 additional state officials to the brief attacking LGBTQ rights: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
These officials promoting government-sanctioned discrimination have shown that they are out-of-touch with the majority of Americans who support the notion that no one should be fired because of who they are. Across lines of party, demographics, and geography, Americans broadly support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people, according to a recently released poll.
The employees in these cases, including ACLU clients Aimee Stephens who was fired for being transgender and Don Zarda who was fired for being homosexual, have argued that discrimination against LGBTQ people is unlawful sex discrimination. A number of federal a
Nondiscrimination Laws
Housing nondiscrimination laws protect LGBTQ people from being unfairly evicted, denied housing, or refused the ability to rent or buy housing on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This map shows state housing nondiscrimination laws that explicitly enumerate sexual orientation and/or gender individuality as protected classes, as well as states that explicitly interpret existing sex protections to include sexual orientation and/or gender individuality. Additionally, in states without state protections, municipalities may provide local-level nondiscrimination protections. See our maps hunting local-level nondiscrimination ordinances here.
Other rights may exist or be recognized where you live; this map is not intended as legal consultation or an indication of your rights. If you have experienced discrimination, contact Lambda Legal's Help Desk or otherwise seek legal advice.
State regulation explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (22 states , 1 territory + D.C.)
State explicitly interprets existing prohibition on sex discriminatio
Supreme Court Says Firing Workers Because They Are LGBTQ Is Unlawful Discrimination
In a landmark conquer for LGBTQ people, the Supreme Court today governed that firing employees because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is sex discrimination that violates federal law. Today’s choice clarifies for the first time that LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination from coast to coast, including in states and cities that possess no express protection for LGBTQ people in their own laws.
While this verdict is a groundbreaking advance for LGBTQ people, there are still significant gaps in federal civil rights law that Congress must fill by passing the Equality Act.
Today’s decision came in three cases raising related issues. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. EEOC and Aimee Stephens, committed Aimee Stephens, who worked for six years as a funeral director at a funeral home in Detroit. Her boss knew her as a man, but Aimee knew since she was little that she was female. After decades of hiding who she really was, Aimee realized she had to come out to the world as her true self or she couldn’t go on living. Gathering enormous courage
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