Avoiding Gender Discrimination: Train Your Team on Using Correct Pronouns
Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibit discrimination based on gender identity (as part of its prohibition on gender discrimination)?
Tag: gender identity
What’s the Meaning of ‘Sex’? Supreme Court Will Finally Provide the Answer
The Employment Law Question of the Decade is: Does the prohibition against sex-based discrimination include discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation? After countless debates on the issue in courts throughout the land, the U.S. Supreme Court is finally primed to give its answer in three cases being argued this term.
The Open Question of Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Throughout the country, courts have reached different conclusions about whether Title VII’s “on the basis of sex” language prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Gender Identity Complexity: From the Olympics to the Workplace
Olympic runner Caster Semenya, a woman by her own identification, was born with a unique body. While outwardly female, her body produces an excess of testosterone compared with other women. Olympic authorities have at times attempted to regulate the amount of testosterone in people like Semenya, and the entire situation has raised real questions about […]
Defining Gender: Employers May See Fallout from Possible Federal Policy Change
Reports of a leaked memo detailing Trump administration plans to adopt a narrow definition of sex—a change that could erase discrimination protections for transgender people—raises questions about the impact of a new federal policy on the workplace.
Virginia Bathroom Gender Dispute Update: 4th Circuit to Answer Critical Question
Although he’s been out of high school for more than a year, Gavin Grimm continues to pursue his case against the Gloucester County School Board for refusing to allow him to use the high school restroom of the gender with which he identifies. A recently granted appeal on a novel question of law at the […]
Oklahoma jury awards transgender worker $1.165 million in bias suit
by Charlie Plumb The courts, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) hold differing views on whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or sexual identity. Nevertheless, on November 20, an Oklahoma City federal court jury awarded a transgender […]
Employers look to ‘culture of inclusiveness’ in era of expanding LGBT rights
Inclusiveness, civility, respectful treatment: Those are all concepts getting a lot of attention as employers struggle to cope with what seems like an increasingly divisive culture often threatening to bleed over into the workplace. A changing legal landscape also must be considered as employers strive for productive and nondiscriminatory working environments. For example, a landmark […]
Stage is set for SCOTUS to rule on Title VII and sexual orientation
by Ryan B. Frazier Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, state and federal laws have been enacted to prohibit employment discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race, ethnicity, age, disability, religion, and gender. Until recently, virtually none of those antidiscrimination laws covered employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. […]
New media rating seeks to bring common sense to gender stereotyping
When my son was five and constantly arguing and negotiating for extra dessert or whatever it was that he wanted at any given time, people would often say, “You should be a lawyer!” His response was always: “I don’t want to be a lawyer because that’s a girl’s job.” While slightly humorous because lawyers are […]