Supreme Court ruling will lead to flood of gender-bias lawsuits

The scenario: After a male employee joined a gay recrea­tional softball league, his coworkers made crude comments about his sexual orientation and participation in the league.

When managers learned of the man’s homosexuality, he was terminated, despite the fact that his department had won several national awards under his leadership.

Legal challenge: The gay worker sued for gender discrimination, alleging that he was dismissed because of his sexual orientation.

The company argued that gender discrimination laws don’t cover alleged bias based on sexual orientation.

The ruling: The employer lost. Ruling on three cases consolidated for review, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision that extends legal protections to bisexual, homosexual and transgender workers under current gender discrimination laws.

The court decided that it’s impossible to discriminate against homosexual, bisexual, or transgender people for any reason other than for gender.

Here’s why: Because the biased behavior wouldn’t apply to members of the opposite sex, the discrimination must be motivated by gender. For instance, a man living with a man might face workplace bias, but a woman living with a man wouldn’t endure the same type of discriminatory behavior. In that case, the discrimination would unquestionably be motivated by gender, said the court.

The skinny: This newly issued decision by the top U.S. court will lead to a flood of lawsuits alleging workplace discrimination based on gender, especially as it relates to sexual orientation and transgender status.

Faced with this new reality, it makes sense to proceed cautiously before disciplining or terminating workers who don’t conform to gender stereotypes.

Cite: Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 17-1618, 6/15/20.

(From the July 3, 2020, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To download the rest of the issue right now, please click here.)