Landmark Ruling Protects LGBTQ Workers, But the Work is Far From Over
Until recently, it was legal in more than half of the states to fire workers for being gay, bisexual, or transgender. A Florida educator, for example, married her wife on Saturday and was fired on Monday. In another case, an Oregon educator was named teacher of the year—in part because of his LGBTQ advocacy—and attended a White House ceremony in his honor on Friday, and was fired for his sexual orientation on Monday. These terminations and others like it, are now, under federal law, illegal.
It’s been a long time coming for members and allies of the LGBTQ community: On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to protect LGBTQ workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Or, as the Court put it, “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.” Over 100 federal statutes prohibit sex discrimination, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Court’s ruling should apply to those statutes as well.
“This means that educators can no longer be fired at work for who they love or who they are,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, adding that students are also protected under the federal law from discrimination at school.
While this is a momentous turning point for the LGBTQ community—particularly for “LGBTQ educators and students who endured discrimination yet continued to stand up to fight for themselves, their co-workers and their students—there is so much CONTINUE READING: Landmark Ruling Protects LGBTQ Workers, But the Work is Far From Over