United States: Supreme Court offers victory to gay and transgender workers

Text by: RFI Follow

In a decision taken Monday, June 15, the US Supreme Court granted gay and transgender workers the benefit of anti-discrimination mechanisms at work. The ruling was passed by a majority of six votes to three, despite opposition from the Trump administration.

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With our correspondent in San Francisco, Eric de Salve

The question put to the judges was simple: can an employer fire an employee because he is gay? In its judgment delivered on Monday, the Supreme Court replied in the negative. The law prohibits it. The whole controversy rests on the legal interpretation of the word "sex" in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This text prohibits the discrimination of an employee because of his skin color, his religion and his sex, but he does not specify if "sex" is to be understood in terms of gender or sexual orientation.

This legal vagueness has so far allowed certain courts to rule that the law only prohibited professional discrimination between men and women and not that against sexual minorities. This very conservative position was defended by the Trump administration, according to which Congress had no intention of defending gays by passing this law in 1964.

The highest court in the United States, eagerly awaited on homosexual matters, therefore finally decided otherwise. Two conservative judges even voted with the four progressives: the president of the Supreme Court John Roberts, but also Neil Gorsuch, however chosen by Donald Trump in 2017. The other judge appointed by the president, Brett Kavanaugh, however opposed to this decision which now protects from dismissal millions of gay workers in the United States.

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• United States
• Justice
• Employment and Work