Illegal to Fire Employees Merely for Being Gay or Transgender, Supreme Court Rules

“An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII (the Civil Right Act law which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin”)”, the Supreme Court declared today.

According to the Supreme Court’s decision, “an employer violates Title VII when it intentionally fires an individual employee based in part on sex”. “Because discrimination on the basis of homosexuality or transgender status requires an employer to intentionally treat individual employees differently because of their sex, an employer who intentionally penalizes an employee for being homosexual or transgender also violates Title VII”. “[Therefore,] an employer who discriminates on these grounds inescapably intends to rely on sex in its decision making”.