The Supreme Court Is About to Hear 3 LGBT Rights Cases That Are Way Bigger than Marriage Equality

When the Supreme Court was considering the issue of same-sex marriage in 2015, almost everyone was paying attention. Couples who had been denied the right to marry were hoping the Court would come to their rescue; liberals were dreaming of a proclamation of a new civil right; conservatives were dreading what would happen to institutions they care about. It seemed like the world was watching.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments about another LGBT rights issue, cases with undeniably greater importance and impact, and yet, almost no one’s talking about it. Yes, we are slammed every day (every hour!) with news of President Trump and his latest scandal, so we live in a different world than we did in 2015, when non-Presidential news had an easier time breaking through. However, we should still take notice of what’s about to happen at the Supreme Court this week and whenever the Court winds up ruling on the issue.

Here’s the basic issue: Can your boss fire you because you are gay or because you are trans? As important as the right to marry was, both in terms of people’s actual lives and symbolic acceptance of gay people, this issue is even more important. Why? For the plain reason that, compared to the small percentage of gay people who are married or want to get married, almost every LGBT person will, at some point in their lives, be employed. It’s simple numbers.

Even though it’s 2019 and gay people can get married, employment discrimination is still not clearly prohibited. If you look at the words of Title VII, the federal law that protects people from employment discrimination, you won’t find anything about “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” Rather, the law prohibits discrimination because of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” There have been many efforts over the years to change the law to add sexual orientation and gender identity to this list of characteristics that are off the table for employment decisions, but they have been stymied repeatedly by Republican opposition.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/supreme-court-gay-rights-workplace-equality-895565/