Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Cuyahoga County bans LGBTQ discrimination
Cuyahoga County, Ohio, my home county, has lately been on the receiving end of some bad press. Season 3 of Serial just landed on your podcast app of choice, and it does not portray my county's criminal justice system in the most positive of lights.
So, today, I thought I'd share something positive from Cuyahoga County.
Yesterday, the County Council passed legislation prohibiting LGBTQ discrimination in employment, as well as housing and public accommodations.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, June 25, 2018
Keep an eye on this 8th Circuit LGBT-discrimiation case
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has been asked to decide if Title VII expressly protects gay, lesbian, and bisexual employees.
The case—Horton v. Midwest Geriatric Management—involves an individual who lost his conditional job offer after, he claims, the owners of the company discovered his sexual orientation.
The 8th Circuit will be the 5th federal circuit to rule on this issue.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, June 5, 2018
When losing is really winning: SCOTUS rules in favor of bakery in gay wedding cake dispute, but…
A lot of digital ink has been spilled in the last day decrying the Supreme Court’s ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission as a win for the religious right and a step backward for LGBT rights. I was guilty of a little Twitter hyperbole myself after a quick first scan of the opinion.
Also, this does not give me a ton of hope that #SCOTUS will get LGBT employment issues right when that issue reaches them.
Then I sat down and read the opinion.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2018
The other side of diversity
Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash |
One side says that employers cannot discriminate against minorities. The other says that employers cannot discriminate against non-minorities in favor of minorities.
Some people call this reverse discrimination. I just call it discrimination.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Tattoos at work: more acceptance, yet still some legal risk
By ABC TV [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
In fact, according to one recent survey, 3 in 10 Americans have at least one tattoo, up 50% in just four years. And, the younger you are, the more likely you are to sport a tattoo: 47% of millennials have a tattoo, as compared to 36% of gen Xers and only 13% of baby boomers.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, March 8, 2018
6th Circuit is the latest court to conclude that Title VII expressly prohibits LGBT discrimination
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash |
The claimant in EEOC v. R.G. &. G.R. Harris Funeral Homes [pdf], Aimee Stevens (formerly known as Anthony Stephens) was born biologically male, and presented as such when hired. The funeral home’s owner and operator, Thomas Rost, fired her shortly after she informed him that she intended to transition from male to female and would represent herself and dress as a woman while at work.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, February 27, 2018
2nd Circuit holds that Title VII expressly bars sexual orientation discrimination as sex discrimination
Photo by Matias Rengel on Unsplash |
With its decision in Zarda v. Altitude Express [pdf], the 2nd Circuit joins the 7th Circuit, and the EEOC in interpreting Title VII as such.
My thoughts on this issue are well documented throughout the archives.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, October 16, 2017
There is no *good* reason to be anti-LGBTQ rights
Last week I presented a webinar entitled, “The Top 10 Employee Handbook Mistakes.”
I discussed, among other policies, missing at-will disclaimers, salary discussion bans, failing to define the FMLA leave-year, inflexible leave of absence policies, and omitted or ineffective harassment policies.
I also discussed anti-discrimination policies that ignore LGBTQ employment rights.
During the LGBTQ section of the webinar, I provided the legal background on the issue (Title VII is silent, some states and municipalities have acted, and the EEOC and federal courts have stepped up to otherwise fill in Title VII’s gap).
I then issued this challenge to the attendees—
“Be on the right side of history.”
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, September 28, 2017
Trump flip-flops on LGBTQ workplace discrimination
“As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.…”
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, September 21, 2017
Is LGBT discrimination finally coming to a head?
Two stories this week caught my attention:
- EEOC Sues Malcolm S. Gerald & Associates for Sexual Orientation Discrimination; and
- Is the EEOC going “wishy-washy” on LGBT rights at work?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 7, 2017
Listen to me on the Talent10x podcast discuss the current state of LGBTQ discrimination
I have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Workforce Magazine. I’ve been blogging at workforce.com for the past five-plus years. I write a monthly column for the magzine. And, I serve on its editorial advisory board. Now, you can also add “podcaster” to my Workforce CV.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, July 31, 2017
Justice Department takes a stand in favor of LGBTQ discrimination
LGBTQ prohibitions continue to make headway in the courts. While Congress has remained silent on the issue, more and more state and federal courts hold that the law’s existing prohibitions against sex discrimination implicitly cover sexual orientation and other forms of LGBTQ discrimination.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Federal court breaks new ground with transgender disability discrimination claim
The ADA expressly excludes from its coverage “transvestism, transsexualism, … [and] gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments….”
Thus, it should be an easy call for a court to dismiss a lawsuit in which an employee, born a male but who identifies and presents as a female, alleges disability discrimination because of her gender identity disorder.
Right?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2017
6th Circuit tees up decision on LGBT discrimination coverage under Title VII
The 6th Circuit is currently considering whether Title VII’s definition of “sex discrimination”.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, April 5, 2017
7th Circuit historically holds that Title VII expressly bans LGBT discrimination
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017
The 11th Circuit’s odd LGBT-discrimination decision
Late last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Evans v. Georgia Regional Hosp. [pdf], held that Title VII does not protect sexual-orientation discrimination per se, and that to sufficiently plead such a cause of action under Title VII, one must allege facts sufficient to establish that the employer discriminated based on non-conformity with sex-based stereotypes.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Tuesday, March 7, 2017
SCOTUS reverses decision to review transgender bathroom case
Yesterday, the Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision that would have heard the appeal of a 4th Circuit opinion granting a transgender boy the right to use the bathroom of his identified gender.
The decision comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s policy change [pdf], which revoked the Obama administration’s guidance that protected the bathroom rights of transgender students in public schools.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Thursday, December 1, 2016
Will the 7th Circuit ban LGBT employment discrimination?
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Federal court recognizes LGBT employment discrimination as illegal under Title VII
It’s been more than a year since the EEOC first announced that it would accept LGBT-discrimination charges as sex-discrimination charges under Title VII. Last week, the EEOC finally got a federal court to agree with its position in a LBGT-discrimination-is-sex-discrimination lawsuit.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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Monday, August 22, 2016
Federal court's rejection of LGBT discrimination claim on religious grounds has scary implications
Last week, a Michigan federal judge rejected the EEOC’s claim that Title VII covers transgender status or gender identity as protected classes.
In EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes (E.D. Mich. 8/18/16) [pdf], the agency pursued a sex-discrimination claim on behalf of the Funeral Home’s former funeral director, Stephens, who is transgender and transitioning from male to female. The EEOC claimed that the Funeral Home “fired Stephens because Stephens is transgender, because of Stephens’s transition from male to female, and/or because Stephens did not conform to [the Funeral Home’s] sex- or gender-based preferences, expectations, or stereotypes.”
The court rejected that claim on several grounds, including the Funeral Homes’s religious beliefs as protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This basis for the holding greatly troubles me.
For more information, contact Jon at (440) 695-8044 or JHyman@Wickenslaw.com.
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