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by Ryan B. Frazier Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, state and federal laws have been enacted to prohibit employment discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race, ethnicity, age, disability, religion, and gender. Until recently, virtually none of those antidiscrimination laws covered employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. […]
by Brian Bouchard Fifty-two years ago, Bob Dylan penned the now-famous lyrics “The times they are a-changin’.” True enough, Mr. Dylan, but for many, changes come slowly, and as the late David Bowie sang: “The days still seem the same.” This can be true in regard to laws, which sometimes struggle to keep pace with […]
by JW Furman With all the attention given to President Donald Trump’s recent removal of the Obama administration’s protection for transgender bathroom access, it’s important to remember that the action applies only to public school students. For employers, the issue remains as unsettled as ever. There’s no reason to believe that the Equal Employment Opportunity […]
by Ryan B. Frazier During the 1990s, Saturday Night Live, a popular TV sketch comedy show, featured a recurring gender-ambiguous character, Pat. The gag in Pat’s comedy sketches often involved others’ failed attempts to determine the seemingly androgynous character’s gender. The skits played off the then-prevailing view that a person’s gender falls into one of […]
by Amanda M. Jones From Bruce Jenner’s announcement that he was transitioning to become a woman named “Caitlyn” to North Carolina’s passage of a so-called bathroom bill requiring schools and public agencies to restrict bathroom use to the facility corresponding to a person’s biological sex at birth, gender identity issues have become the subject of […]
by Joseph Godwin Much attention has been given recently to laws passed concerning transgender individuals’ use of public restrooms. Over the past few years, state legislatures have passed or proposed “bathroom bills” that generally require individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender listed on their birth certificate and prevent transgender individuals from […]
by Brent E. Siler The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed its first lawsuits alleging that discrimination based on sexual orientation is sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the EEOC has successfully filed sex discrimination claims on behalf of LGBT employees in the past, the recent lawsuits […]
by Amanda Shelby We typically think of sex discrimination and sexual harassment as involving two employees of the opposite sex, but that unlawful activity can occur between employees of the same sex, too. Although federal law doesn’t explicitly recognize gender identity or sexual orientation as protected characteristics, several states and cities have passed ordinances prohibiting […]
As the debate over gender identity discrimination rages within the halls of state and federal governments, employers are left to wonder how the controversy will play out in the workplace. One high-profile aspect of the issue centers on North Carolina’s House Bill 2, which Governor Pat McCrory signed into law on March 23. The law […]
by Tony Puckett The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has announced proposed regulations updating its current sex discrimination regulations for federal government contractors and subcontractors. The proposed regulations are the first substantive update to the “Sex Discrimination Guidelines,” which the OFCCP adopted in 1970. The OFCCP’s press release […]