Equality bill: Why you can still be fired in US for being gay (barf alert)

BBC News ^ | 29th August 2019 | Anthony Zurcher

[Ennis85]

In May the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed sweeping new civil rights protections for LGBT Americans. The Republican-controlled Senate has yet to act, however, and supporters of the legislation - including pop star Taylor Swift - are getting frustrated.

The Equality Act, as it's called, expands workplace, education and public accommodation protections that currently prohibit discrimination based on race, gender and disability to include sexual preference and gender identity.

The federal law would nationalise legal safeguards that are currently afforded to varying extent in only 22 states and the District of Columbia. In the remaining states, it is legal for individuals to be refused employment, housing or business services because of their sexual preference or gender identity.

The Human Rights Campaign, which has been a champion of the bill, points to the story of Carter Brown, who was outed as transgender at his workplace. He was harassed by co-workers and subsequently fired. Because he lives in Texas, which does not have protections for sexual identity, he had no legal recourse.

"If the Equality Act had been in place during my employment, it would have been illegal for my employer to engage in harassment and fire me because I was transgender," Brown told a congressional committee. "My family would not have had to shoulder the burden of my loss of income and worry about my emotional health."

While accepting an MTV Video Music Award for her pro-LGBT song on Monday, Swift - who has become an outspoken critic of the president's - said the Equality Act "basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law". She added that the White House had not responded to her Change.org petition with more than half a million signatures calling for passage of the legislation. She paused and pantomimed tapping a watch on

[Skywise]

Why you can still be fired in the US for supporting the Oresident.

Why you can still be fired in the US for thinking gay marrriage is an oxymoron.

Why you can still be fired in the US for supporting gun rights.

Sorry guys - I don’t care anymore.

Either we ALL have the right to free assembly or none of us do.

It’s time to revoke the civil liberties law which illegally gives preferential treatment based on facetious characteristics.

[TheZMan]

And where do we end up at the end of this, Mrs. Swift, oh bringer of better policies for workers of all stripes?

We end up in a situation where the only people that can be fired are the “normal” people.

We end up in a situation where someone who clearly needs to be fired has to be documented, incident by incident, for months or years, before they’re let go - costing the company tons of money in the process.

Thanks, Mrs. Swift, for your insightful, knowledgeable contribution to the working stiffs.

[eyeamok]

How sweet, she wants special rights for deviant behavior, and lifestyle choices, Shouldn’t we have special rights for those that Rob Rape and Kill as their lifestyle choices and deviant behavior commands?

[antidemoncrat]

“Equal justice under law”

Is this statement really that hard to understand?

[susannah59]

This is nonsense. I’ve worked with gay and even transgender people as long as 30 years ago, in the conservative South, in a “right to work” state. I’ve never known of anyone being fired for those reasons. Most employers don’t really care what you do outside of work as long as you do your job.

If you get fired from a job because you’ve stolen, been insubordinate, or whatever, then it probably doesn’t matter if you are gay, transgender, or a fundamentalist Christian. Your actions at work are what got you fired.

[Olog-hai]

Mrs. Swift? She married someone with the same last name as her?

[VanShuyten]

“...and worry about my emotional health.”

I don’t think the loss of a job worried this guy’s (?) family as much as his sexual deviation from reality.

[TheZMan]

Grammar nazi. :P

[Prince of Space]

This law is so stupid. It’s against the law to discriminate due to age, but that doesn’t stop employers from refusing to hire older workers. Of course, it’s all hush-hush. You simply don’t get called in for an interview if you’re over a certain age. Now proving it is a different story but I know it happens all the time. So just because there’s a law doesn’t mean the behavior goes away. 🤣

[fwdude]

Okay. No one is fired for “being gay” (unless you are having “gay sex” on your desk at work.). People are fired for a number of reasons: unproductively, insubordination, lack of skills, etc.

Businesses are going to keep people who advance the goals of the business, “gay” or not.