CHICAGO — Companies cannot discriminate against LGBT employees in the workplace because of their sexual orientation, a federal appeals court said, in a ruling that a gay rights group called a “game changer.”
The 8-to-3 decision Tuesday by the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago is likely to lead to a battle before the Supreme Court over the interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This is because a three-judge panel in Atlanta ruled the opposite three weeks ago.
“This decision is a game changer for lesbian and gay employees facing discrimination in the workplace and sends a clear message to employers: it is against the law to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation,” said Greg Nevins, of Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBT issues.
The case stems from a lawsuit by Indiana teacher Kimberly Hively alleging that the Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend didn’t hire her full time because she is a lesbian.
In an opinion concurring with the majority, Judge Richard Posner wrote that evolving norms call for a change in interpretation of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin or sex.
“I don’t see why firing a lesbian because she is in the subset of women who are lesbian should be thought any less a form of sex discrimination than firing a woman because she’s a woman,” wrote the judge, who was appointed by Republican Ronald Reagan.
The decision comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has begun setting its own policies on LGBT rights. Late in January, the White House declared Trump would enforce an Obama administration order barring companies that do federal work from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual identity. But in February, it revoked guidance on transgender students’ use of public school bathrooms, deferring to states.
Hively said after Tuesday’s ruling that she agreed to bring the case because she felt she was being “bullied.” She told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the time has come “to stop punishing people for being gay, being lesbian, being transgender.”
Ivy Tech said in a statement that its policies specifically bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and that it denies discriminating against Hively, a factual question separate from the 7th Circuit’s finding regarding the law.
The Chicago ruling came on the anniversary of the assassination of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, whose marches against racism prompted Congress to pass the landmark civil rights law. A GOP-majority House and Senate make it unlikely the current Congress will amend the law.