LGBTQ Employment Rights in the United States
Written by Paul LeBlanc
Hello, everyone! For this week’s Pride Month post, I wanted to touch on a topic that has only recently received much attention: employment rights for LGBTQ people.
Much of the public dialogue around LGBTQ rights during the past 20 years has focused on marriage. However, it was only in 2020 that LGBTQ people finally received federal civil rights protections against employment discrimination. To this day, there are still 29 states—Michigan included—that lack any civil rights protections at the state level for LGBTQ people, including in employment.
With this post, I would like to touch on the history of employment rights for LGBTQ people in the U.S., as well as the ways that allies can support their LGBTQ coworkers, family members, and friends in the workplace.
Why Are Employment Protections Important?
Despite advances in social attitudes toward LGBTQ people, many members of the community routinely experience discrimination in the workforce. Research has found that 42–68% of LGBTQ people have experienced employment discrimination (Badgett, 2012; Fassinger, 2007), and one study found that 90% of transgender people reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination at work (Grant et al., 2011).
On a personal level, I myself was very nearly denied a job toward the beginning of my career because the employer discovered I was gay. I was only offered the job after an ally at the organization intervened on my behalf (I found this out some time after I started work). Sadly, like many forms of discrimination, this type of unequal treatment is often silent and covert.
Gerald Bostock (left), the lead plaintiff in Bostock v. Clayton County, and Aimee Stephens (right), the plaintiff in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Images Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Bostock Decision: What Did and Didn’t It Do?
In 2020, in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court specifically ruled in favor of Gerald Bostock, a government employee in Clayton County, Georgia, who was fired from his job in the juvenile court system after promoting a gay softball league at work. The Court additionally ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens in the companion case of R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Ms. Stephens, a transgender woman, had been fired from a funeral home in Southeastern Michigan because the owner did not agree with her transition.
In the Bostock decision, the Court specifically held that discriminating against LGBTQ people violates provisions of the Civil Rights Act banning employers from unequal treatment on the basis of sex. This was a landmark ruling that expanded employment rights for LGBTQ people at employers nationwide for the first time. Despite this victory, it is important to note that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act only covers businesses with 15 or more regular employees. This means that LGBTQ people employed at small businesses in the 29 states lacking employment protections—including Michigan—have no legal rights if they are fired or discriminated against for being LGBTQ.
What Can You Do as an Ally?
This year’s Pride Month theme is how to be an LGBTQ ally, and that begs the question: what can you do to support LGBTQ people in the workforce? One actionable step is to voice your support for state-level legislation protecting LGBTQ people from employment discrimination. However, legal protections are not enough; discrimination is often very hard to prove, and many people lack the financial resources to pursue legal claims.
Other ways you can support the community include backing equal employment policies at local businesses that protect people based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Additionally, perhaps the most valuable type of activism an ally can take is speaking up and intervening on behalf of an LGBTQ person—like the staff member who intervened at my former job. Never forget that we all have the power to affect change on an individual level!
Sources/Further Reading:
Freedom for All Americans, “LGBTQ Americans Aren’t Fully Protected From Discrimination in 29 States”: https://freedomforallamericans.org/states/
American Psychological Association, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Persons & Socioeconomic Status”: https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/lgbt
Oyez, “Bostwick v. Clayton County” (case summary): https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618
Oyez, “R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission” (case summary): https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-107