Hi Friend,
AMAZING NEWS — This morning, the Supreme Court made history by ruling that it’s illegal to fire someone for being LGBTQ! Before today, no law explicitly protected LGBTQ people from being fired from their jobs in 28 states based on their sexual orientation or gender identity; in other words, just for being themselves. Today’s decision enables LGBTQ young people to freely pursue their talents and dreams.
“We hear from LGBTQ youth every day who suffer from discrimination and harassment, and our research demonstrates that LGBTQ youth who experienced LGBTQ-based workplace discrimination were twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the past year compared to those who did not.*”
—Amit Paley, CEO & Executive Director, The Trevor Project
*Preliminary data from Trevor’s upcoming 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health
While this historic news is a cause for celebration, we must also recognize that the fight for LGBTQ equality is far from over. Even with this decision, it is still legal under federal law to discriminate against LGBTQ people in several areas, including public accommodations like retail stores and federally funded programs like hospitals, adoption agencies, and critical COVID-19 relief programs. Just last Friday, the Administration tried to undermine nondiscrimination protections for transgender and nonbinary people when it comes to health care and health insurance. And as long as Black transgender people face an epidemic of violence, and Black LGBTQ people face systemic racism in the workplace and across society, there is no LGBTQ equality.
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