{"id":423,"date":"2018-03-28T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/?p=423"},"modified":"2023-12-15T21:57:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T21:57:48","slug":"courts-expand-sex-discrimination-laws-to-include-prohibitions-on-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/2018\/03\/28\/courts-expand-sex-discrimination-laws-to-include-prohibitions-on-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Courts expand \u201csex\u201d discrimination laws to include prohibitions on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two recent Circuit Court cases create a conflict among the Circuits on the question of whether sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination is a form of \u201csex discrimination.\u201d While the 11<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Circuit and most other Circuits holds that it is not (see Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, 850 F&gt;3d 1248 (11<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Cir. 2017)), the Second and Sixth Circuits have issued rulings to the contrary.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov\/opinions.pdf\/18a0045p-06.pdf\" class=\"mtli_attachment mtli_pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">EEOC v. R.G. &amp; G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc.<\/a>, 884 F.3d 560 (6<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Cir. 2018);&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ca2.uscourts.gov\/decisions\/isysquery\/ffc9a489-342f-493c-90d2-765f1212a94a\/2\/doc\/15-3775_complete_enbanc_opn.pdf#xml=http:\/\/www.ca2.uscourts.gov\/decisions\/isysquery\/ffc9a489-342f-493c-90d2-765f1212a94a\/2\/hilite\/\" class=\"mtli_attachment mtli_pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc<\/a>,&nbsp;883 F.3d 100 (2d Cir. 2018). Both courts agree with the 7<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Circuit\u2019s holding in Hively v. Ivy Tech Cmty. College of Indiana, 853 F.3d 339 (7<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Cir. 2017) (Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zarda holds that discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation is both per se sex discrimination and a form of gender stereotyping. It is sex discrimination because the employer would not have engaged in the adverse action had the employee been of a different sex. Acting because a male employee is attracted to men rather than woman is sex discrimination because no action would have been taken had the employee been a woman; the sex of the employee is a but-for cause of the action. Sexual orientation discrimination is a form of gender-stereotyping because it assumes that men are attracted to and should be romantically attached only to women; since not all men fit in that mold, it is sex discrimination to act against an employee because they do not fit a preconceived idea about the way men should be and should act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EEOC v. RG &amp; GR Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. makes similar arguments in the context of an employee fired after telling her employer she was transitioning from male to female. The court found sex discrimination to be present based on the gender-stereotyping theory because the employer\u2019s action was based on non-conformance of the employee\u2019s gender identity and appearance with sex-based norms or expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"taxonomy-category wp-block-post-terms\"><a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/category\/antidiscrimination-law\/\" rel=\"tag\">Antidiscrimination Law<\/a><span class=\"wp-block-post-terms__separator\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/category\/sexual-orientation\/\" rel=\"tag\">Sexual Orientation<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two recent Circuit Court cases create a conflict among the Circuits on the question of whether sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination is a form of \u201csex discrimination.\u201d While the 11th&nbsp;Circuit and most other Circuits holds that it is not (see Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, 850 F&gt;3d 1248 (11th&nbsp;Cir. 2017)), the Second and Sixth Circuits have issued rulings to the contrary.&nbsp;EEOC v. R.G. &amp; G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc., 884 F.3d 560 (6th&nbsp;Cir. 2018);&nbsp;Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc,&nbsp;883 F.3d 100 (2d Cir. 2018). Both courts agree with the 7th&nbsp;Circuit\u2019s holding in Hively v. Ivy Tech Cmty. College of Indiana, 853 F.3d 339 (7th&nbsp;Cir. 2017) (Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation). Zarda holds that discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation is both per se sex discrimination and a form of gender stereotyping. It is sex discrimination because the employer would not have engaged &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/2018\/03\/28\/courts-expand-sex-discrimination-laws-to-include-prohibitions-on-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-discrimination\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Courts expand \u201csex\u201d discrimination laws to include prohibitions on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antidiscrimination-law","category-sexual-orientation"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"jsinger","author_link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/author\/jsinger\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}