US Court Rules Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers

" Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination applies to any practice in which sex is a motivating factor. 42U.S.C.§2000e‐2(m). As explained above, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination because sexual orientation is defined by one’s sex in relation to the sex of those to whom one is attracted, making it impossible for an employer to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without taking sex into account. Sexual orientation discrimination is also based on assumptions or stereotypes about how members of a particular gender should be, including to whom they should be attracted. Finally, sexual orientation discrimination is associational discrimination because an adverse employment action that is motivated by the employer's opposition to association between members of particular sexes discriminates against an employee on the basis of sex. Each of these three perspectives is sufficient to support this Court's conclusion and together they amply demonstrate that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination.

Although sexual orientation discrimination is “assuredly not the principal evil that Congress was concerned with when it enacted Title VII”, “statutory prohibitions often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils.”... In the context of Title VII, the statutory prohibition extends to all discrimination “because of … sex” and sexual orientation discrimination is an actionable subset of sex discrimination. We overturn our prior precedents to the contrary to the extent they conflict with this ruling."

Chief Judge Robert Katzmann, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, February 26, 2018.

     click here to read the entire decision (and it's a great read)