Campaign Action
Some of the most important strides for LGBTQ rights under the Obama administration were the result of interpretation rather than innovation. Among other things, the Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took the position that the federal prohibition against sex discrimination in the workplace also barred sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. Unfortunately, now Attorney General Jeff Sessions controls how the Justice Department interprets law.
Sessions issued a memo rescinding and reversing the Obama-era position on Oct. 4, specifying that gender identity is not protected under the umbrella of sex discrimination. There’s been considerable, and understandable, pushback. The latest? The American Bar Association came together this week to urge Sessions to revert to the more progressive interpretation of the ban on sex discrimination.
Employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation should be prohibited under a proper interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a resolution passed overwhelmingly by the ABA House of Delegates on Monday at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At a personal level, Sessions’s actions are as mystifying as they are cruel.
“I don’t understand the enthusiasm with which our current justice department seeks to discriminate,” said Walter H. White Jr., of Washington, D.C.
Of course, if and when the Supreme Court finally takes a Title VII case confronting this issue squarely, not even Jeff Sessions can undo its ruling.