Nicole Wittmer filed a lawsuit against Phillips 66 Company, alleging that the company refused to hire her for a job because she is transgender. A federal district court in Texas ruled that Title VII, a federal law that prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace, protects transgender workers, but that Wittmer had not offered sufficient evidence that her transgender status was the reason she was not hired. Wittmer appealed. In 2018, NCLR, along with the ACLU, GLBTQ Legal Advocates &...
Our Voices
Matthew Christiansen, a gay man, sued his employer based on his allegation that his supervisor engaged in a pattern of harassment targeting his sexual orientation and nonconformity with sex stereotypes. A federal district court in New York dismissed his lawsuit based on precedent holding that Title VII, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace, does not protect workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. The district court criticized earlier decisions...
As outrageous as it is, today, people in many states can be fired from their jobs or denied services simply because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Without a federal law protecting LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination, it is essential that cities, counties, and towns have the power to pass anti-discrimination laws. Nashville passed such a law in 2011, only to have state lawmakers, working with a virulently anti-LGBTQ group, take it away. In June 2011, NCLR filed a lawsuit...
Marilynn Zupancic and her former partner Dianne were together for 30 years and planned on spending the rest of their lives together. Although they could not legally marry in their home state of Colorado, Marilynn and Dianne were partners in every respect. Marilynn, a teacher, supported Dianne while she was in graduate school, and they took out a mortgage on their jointly-owned home so that Dianne could pay off her school loans. In 2007, their relationship ended. If Marilynn and Dianne had been...