How The Supreme Court Shake-Up Will Impact The Future Of LGBT Rights

From: Wicked Gay

"Currently, a majority of states and the federal government lack explicit protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Over the last several years, however, many lower courts and several executive agencies have begun to revisit whether sex discrimination protections, passed by Congress in the 1960s and 70s, include discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

LGBT litigator groups believe — and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commissionand agrowing number of courts have ruled — that because gender is at the core of anti-LGBT discrimination, such discrimination falls within existing sex protections. If the Supreme Court sided with those arguments, the ramifications would be huge: discrimination against LGBT people would be clearly and undeniably illegal in vital areas of life, from workplaces to schools.

The question at the core of the discrimination cases differs from the one answered in the Court’s majority opinion in Obergefell, meaning that the same coalition of five justices, particularly the inclusion of Justice Anthony Kennedy, may not exist in the context of nondiscrimination protections." Full story here!