Dive Brief:
- A recent federal court decision has thrown the issue of LGBT workplace discrimination into confusion, according to a report from the Indianapolis Star.
- Specifically, a South Bend, Ind., woman who accused her ex-employer, Ivy Tech Community College, of discrimination, lost her court battle when the judges found that federal law doesn't protect workers who say they are discriminated against based sexual orientation.
- The ruling, by a panel of judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, is in direct conflict with the EEOC's expanded view on sexual orientation protections.
Dive Insight:
The federal court upheld a lower court's dismissal of the suit filed by Kimberly Hively, a former part-time Ivy Tech instructor who said she was rejected for a full-time job because she's a lesbian.
The case highlights the fact that federal civil rights protections cover employees for discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color and national origin. Sexual orientation, however, is not on the list. And the judges in this case said they had no choice in ruling against Hively for that reason. They wrote that a Supreme Court ruling or new federal legislation is required to mend the situation.
In the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation was not part of that case. There are, however, 22 states where sexual orientation discrimination laws are on the books, though Indiana is not one of them (a bill offering that protection failed).
