US Supreme Court rules in favor of LGBT workers under existing federal law [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that existing federal law prohibits job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
• The ruling was a major victory for LGBT community and gay rights groups across the country.
• The Trump administration had urged the court that the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not include protection of workers based on sexual preference.

Known as increasingly conservative, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay rights on Monday after it said that the existing federal law forbids job discrimination relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The news was a major victory, and a surprise, for the LGBT community across the country.

In a 6-3 decision, the court settled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which provides a clause that it is illegal for employers to discriminate based on a person’s sex, among other factors.

In the US, 21 states have their respective laws on job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, while another seven states had laws to protect at least public employees. 

The ruling on Monday constitutes that federal law can now protect LGBT employees’ rights in the rest of the country.

Since every LGBT adult needs to have a job, gay rights groups treated the case with high importance, even more significant than the right to marry.

When the civil rights law was passed, the court conceded that sexual orientation was not considered by lawmakers back then. But it said that the latest ruling will cover when an employer fires a male employee for dating men, but not a female employee who dates men.

The announcement on Monday would benefit people like Gerald Bostock and the relatives of Donald Zarda. Bostock was terminated from his county job in Georgia after he joined a gay softball team, while Zarda was a skydiving instructor who was fired after he told a female client to not mind being strapped tightly to him during a jump since he was “100% gay.”

Zarda died before the case reached the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration had pressed the court to rule that Title VII does not include such cases, which is in contrast from the government’s position during Obama’s presidency.

“The ordinary meaning of ‘sex’ is biologically male or female; it does not include sexual orientation. An employer who discriminates against employees in same-sex relationships thus does not violate Title VII as long as it treats men in same-sex relationships the same as women in same-sex relationships,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The case brought to the Supreme Court no longer includes Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018 and had written all significant court decisions pertaining to gay rights. Kennedy was succeeded by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was generally conservative and a Trump-appointee.

Source: AOL.com