Supreme Court Decision repercussions on Coming Out Later in Life

The Supreme Court decision to include LGBTQ in the definition of sex pertaining to anti-discrimination is a huge win for the LGBTQ community. An employer can no longer fire an individual for being gay in the United States.

I have been reflecting on this decision and thinking back to my own journey when I embraced my sexuality and thereafter deciding to live my truth and come out. I recall in the months before embracing my sexuality and saying to myself “I am gay” contemplating all of the repercussions that would occur Amongst such repercussions was the risk that I would lose my job. I was not sure which way the wind would blow and I accepted the risk that my career would have been lost by coming out. At the time, before this decision, I was not residing in a state that provided anti discrimination protections for sexuality. More so, I was a resident of a state that fought hard against gay marriage.

At the time, after I embraced my sexuality and came out broadly shortly thereafter, not only did I not lose my job, I as embraced by those I worked with. Back then I was surprised by everyone’s positive reaction, but in retrospect I totally get it and actually created more fear for myself than was necessary.

Having ant-discrimination protections is such an important right for later in lifers. It removes one fundamental risk to be concerned about when thinking about coming out and living our truths.

I am hopefully this will continue the momentum for anti-gay religions and families to rethink their positions and embrace LGBTQ members they are supposed to love. So while significant progress was made and momentum continues more work is still required. But what a major milestone the decision is for everyone here reading this, on this board, contemplating their own futures where one fundamental risk is now removed.

 

These are quotes from the Gorsuch’s opinion:

“An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law."

And

"how these doctrines protecting religious liberty interact with Title VII are questions for future cases too."

So, the door is kept open for religious groups to “self reflect” and bring to the court new cases. I believe these cases will not be able to overturn the current decision broadly, but I am concerned they will be able to provide an “out” for religious organizations to maintain their “religious liberties” and allow them to fire people. Given the court is conservative, and assuming religious institutions win their arguments to maintain their religious liberties, decisions by LGBTQ to work for a religious organization with an anti-LGBT agenda to do so at their own risk. And maybe that is a middle ground where things land. But, If I continue to think this through, I wonder if this would provide a potential loop hole for any ant-LGBT non-religious institution to claim “religious liberties” and still fire someone for being LGBT.

Again, its a great win, but the debate is not over yet. More reflection and objective thinking to come.......

 

I am not a lawyer, but the first amendment protects religious freedom. And this is the basis for an argument from the religious right that such a ruling impedes on their ability to practice their religion.

In discussions I have had with various LGBT advocacy groups (of which I am having another discussion later today on this specific topic), a ruling exempting religious institutions would not be a surprise to them. Of course it will be appropriately fought if/when such litigation commences. More so, some conservative based LGBT advocacy groups (yes they do exist), even think such a ruling in favor of religious liberties would represent a fair middle ground.

And interestingly, the supreme court did not address the concept of whether LGBTQ should or should not be protected. What they did was only look at the wording of workplace anti sex discrimination language and defined that the word sex covers LGBTQ sexuality because regardless of someones sexuality, they are in the first instance a defined sex (clearly I am trying to simplify the wording based on what I read).

 

Actually, its probably not that simple even with at will employees. If someone feels they were fired at will and an excuse was raised, the ruling gives such employee grounds to sue. Even if the current administration does not enforce it, damages (both financial and reputation) can be awarded and that can get costly for businesses that breach. I am sure there will be plenty of labor lawyers willing to take on a case on behalf of a plaintiff and fight it in court. And I would expect to see numerous suits brought in the coming months and/or years directly attributable to this ruling.