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Tell the US Supreme Court:
"Protect LGBTQ+ employees from workplace discrimination."
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Friend,
The U.S. Supreme Court is now deciding on a crucial human rights issue: whether LGBTQ+ people can legally be fired for their gender identity or sexual orientation.
With an increasingly conservative court, we have a real fight ahead of us.
Sign now to urge the Supreme Court: Protect LGBTQ+ employees from workplace discrimination.
Right now, in most states, LGBTQ+ people can legally be fired and demoted based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.1 Most have already experienced harassment or discrimination at work—if they can even find work.2 Transgender people are twice as likely to be unemployed, as compared to cisgender people. That likelihood doubles for trans people of color.3
LGBTQ+ people are still fighting for basic human rights—rights that other people have long taken for granted.
Everyone should be able to go to work each day without the fear of being fired or discriminated against because of who they are. Remember: our income is tied to our healthcare and our ability to cover our own and our families’ needs.
By pushing for the Supreme Court to decide that LGBTQ+ people are not protected under our federal workplace anti-discrimination laws, Trump’s DOJ wants to send a message: that the already-marginalized LGBTQ+ community doesn’t deserve basic rights or dignity.
If the Supreme Court decides that millions of people can be fired, demoted, or mistreated at work based on their identities, it would also:
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Further threaten the already-marginalized LGBTQ+ community’s safety, as well as other basic rights, including access to housing, education, healthcare, and credit.
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Devastate trans youth, who already face frighteningly high rates of suicide.
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Give hateful people more justification to commit daily microaggressions and even hate crimes. Already, trans women of color are facing an epidemic of violence.
Sign now to urge the Supreme Court to protect LGBTQ+ people from workplace discrimination.
One key person in the cases now before the Court is Aimee Stephens, a brave resident of Michigan’s #13DistrictStrong. She excelled at her job directing a funeral home for years, and over time she built up the courage to come out as trans to her boss. He promptly fired her.
“We have the same basic human rights that everyone else does,” said Stephens. A federal court agreed with her, but her employer appealed.
Now, her case marks the first time the Supreme Court has heard arguments about trans people’s rights. She’s a role model for so many people, and she’s making history with her courage.
Show your support for trans justice-seeker Aimee Stephens by signing to tell the Supreme Court: Protect LGBTQ+ employees from workplace discrimination.
If the court decides that our federal anti-discrimination laws don’t protect LGBTQ+ people, the ruling could also overturn other past legal precedents, which have expanded our understanding of the Civil Rights Act’s protections against sex-based discrimination.
This would be disastrous for all women, all people who don’t conform to gender stereotypes, and anyone who is sexually harassed at work. This isn’t just about LGBTQ+ people. It’s about all of us.
And we have a chance of winning. During last month’s oral arguments, Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared to agree with federal courts that discrimination based on someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity has to do with their sex, and is thus illegal sex-based discrimination.
However, he hesitated, worrying that the decision to uphold LGBTQ+ workers’ rights would cause “massive social upheaval.”
We must show Gorsuch and other members of the Supreme Court that in fact, the public supports upholding people’s rights. And we must show our queer and trans neighbors that we’ll fight back against discrimination.
Will you demonstrate your support for LGBTQ+ people’s rights by adding your name now?
Thank you,
Rashida
P.S. I want to leave you with some powerful words from my district’s own Aimee Stephens:
“No one should face discrimination because of who they are. As difficult as being fired was for me and my family, that’s not why I decided to go to court. My case is about so much more than me—or even transgender people. It’s about anyone who has ever been told they are not enough of a man or not the right kind of a woman. It’s about anyone who has ever experienced sex discrimination. It’s about making sure the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else.
...I am happier as my true self. If I had to do it all again, I would.”[4]
Me and Aimee Stephens
1 https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/10/21/how-might-the-lgbt-cases-in-front-of-the-supreme-court-affect-the-workers-of-tomorrow/
2 https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/politics/supreme-court-lgbtq-arguments/index.html
3 https://news.northeastern.edu/2019/10/21/how-might-the-lgbt-cases-in-front-of-the-supreme-court-affect-the-workers-of-tomorrow/
4 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-was-fired-for-being-transgender-the-supreme-court-should-make-sure-it-doesnt-happen-again/2019/06/25/59789d72-92b9-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html
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