Discrimination Against LGBTQ Workers

Until we pass the Equality Act our LGBTQ workforce continues to face job discrimination according to a new study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law. This isn’t really surprising but it is still shocking that in 2021 the report found that 46% of LGBTQ workers reported receiving unfair treatment at some point in their careers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity including being passed over for a job, harassed at work, denied a promotion or raise, excluded from company events, denied additional hours or fired. Even more upsetting is that many reported being denied a job or laid off in the past 12 months because of their orientation or identity. Progress is slow in coming for our LGBTQ workforce though there has been some progress. In North Carolina a wrongfully terminated a gay substitute teacher who was fired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte when he announced that he was getting married will go to trial. U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn said the Charlotte Catholic High School violated federal sex discrimination laws when it fired Lonnie Billard. Judge Cogburn stated, "Defendants cannot escape Title VII liability by recharacterizing Plaintiff's announcement of his engagement as "advocacy". If Plaintiff were a woman who posted on Facebook that she was getting married to her husband, Defendants would not have interpreted her announcement as "advocacy" for or against the Catholic Church. Plaintiff's engagement was only considered advocacy because of his sex." The Williams Institute study also reports there are approximately 8.1 million LGBTQ workers over the age of 16 in the U.S., almost half (3.9 million) of whom live in states without anti-discrimination laws protecting sexual orientation & gender identity. Read Full Report…