The United States Supreme Court has handed down a landmark case solidifying the rights of homosexual and transgender individuals within the workplace in Bostock v. Clayton Cty. The Court held that all three of the employers in the underlying cases violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when each of the employers fired employees shortly after those employee revealed that he or she were either homosexual or transgender. Proceeding on the assumption that the term “sex” as it is used in Title VII refers only to the biological distinction between male and female, the Court turned its focus to analyzing what Title VII says about “sex.”

Title VII says it is “unlawful . . . for an employer to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(a)(1) (emphasis added). The Court stated that, “[i]n Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee.” As such, the Court determined that it is a necessary consequence of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.