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The Chicago Tribune reports that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals—which sets precedent in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin—ruled
that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The plaintiff, a college teacher, said she was reprimanded for kissing her girlfriend, then was not given full-time work at the college and was dismissed. The college denied that it discriminated against her.
MP3 audio of the oral arguments is available.
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LGBT Workers in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin Gain Protection
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven;
confess them to man and you will be laughed at.
-- Josh Billings
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Thursday April 06 2017, @12:05PM (16 children)
The article states that:
Eight judges on the Chicago appellate court agreed that workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In this case, Title VII is prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex — the idea presumably being that the college can't discriminate because the individuals kissing were both female, not male and female.
If the judges did specify "sexual orientation" in their ruling, particularly if they did it in a way that relied on the connected biological aspect of sex & orientation, then there's a strong chance that future judges won't feel that ruling can be stretched to include gender identity. In any event, it won't be settled until somebody takes the issue through the court system, which effectively means that the protection doesn't automatically extend beyond orientation.
(Then again, after seeing a bunch of seemingly-educated people (including "Bizarro" author Piraro) describing transgender individuals as "non-heterosexuals" in anti-discrimination rants the other day [bizarro.com], well, who the fuck knows.)
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @12:12PM (14 children)
NOBODY gets to kiss in public. It's rude to be doing that, anyway; not everybody wants to be a party to your messy sensuality.
(Score: 4, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Thursday April 06 2017, @02:25PM (2 children)
I'm sorry no one loves you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @02:40PM (1 child)
You're a shining example of the value of the moderation system on SN.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @03:06PM
Awww the puritan feels pucked on. Let's coddle his widdle feewings everyone!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday April 06 2017, @05:45PM (9 children)
And just yesterday we were hearing about how the right is the "freedom of expression" party.
I guess, much like the dreaded SJWs, that only applies to expression you agree with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @05:56PM (7 children)
The point is that all the school has to do is argue that is has a policy against public displays of affection; there is no particular discrimination.
Anyway, what could your point possibly be? Surely, you are not arguing that freedom of expression extends to, say, sex in the open streets.
Where should the line be drawn? Certainly not by government! This is yet another reason why such colleges should be "private" institutions.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday April 06 2017, @06:14PM (6 children)
The line has already been drawn. Public decency laws already cover that. If your college wishes to further restrict legal freedoms then they can probably do that (if they are careful).
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @06:46PM (5 children)
s/t
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday April 06 2017, @07:28PM (4 children)
No, pointing out that laws already exist to cover sex in public is not irrelevant. It's not a copout. It's not a straw man. It perfectly answers your question of "Where should the line be drawn?". The line has already been drawn.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @09:01PM (3 children)
Next time, try to keep the entire context of the discussion in your head when you reply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @09:44PM (1 child)
Next time don't read the articles, summaries, or anything else that might lead you to comment on this site. Your posts always start of a bit stupid or bigoted, and then you can't handle when people have good points against yours. If you don't care about the discussion and only want a soap box why don't you try youtube comments?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @12:37PM
Keep trying.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 07 2017, @01:31PM
That's actually not easy to do. Reply doesn't give you anything but very comment you are replying to. I often have to manually go to the article comments, find the start of the comment chain, and read through again. Especially for replies that are a day or two after my last comment. Though i know you were shooting for an insult, i am not insulted about this one.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by Scrutinizer on Thursday April 06 2017, @08:36PM
Without defending "the right", I wish to express my freedom by playing airhorn solos inside your bedroom at three o'clock in the morning. Being that you seem to be a proponent of tolerance, I'm sure I'll find you most accommodating...
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday April 07 2017, @07:08PM
I don't know how you managed +2 Disagree but well done in any case.
Also I must be pretty dense or inattentive but I actually don't notice this stuff. Last time I heard anyone care about PDA or even really address it was jr high. But I see this was a college. With adults in it. ermuhgerd
The next day, Hively said, an administrator reprimanded her for "sucking face" and chastised her unprofessional behavior.
'Following this, the administration concluded that she was in fact not a "hot lesbian" and was "liek totally necking it with the platypus".'
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday April 06 2017, @10:27PM
In the story submission, I ought to have written that the quote was the Chicago Tribune's words, not the court's. The court's Web site doesn't work properly for me, so I didn't find a link to the opinion.
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/ [uscourts.gov]
Lambda Legal, which did the legal work for the plaintiff, has a long quote from the opinion.
http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20170404_court-rules-employers-cant-discriminate-against-gay-employees [lambdalegal.org]
So does Findlaw:
Viewed through the lens of the gender non-conformity line of cases, Hively represents the ultimate case of failure to conform to the female stereotype (at least as understood in a place such as modern America, which views heterosexuality as the norm and other forms of sexuality as exceptional): she is not heterosexual.
-- http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2017/04/federal-court-civil-rights-act-protects-gay-lesbian-workers-from-discrimination.html [findlaw.com]
Besides physical changes to the body such as growing a beard or having a penis constructed, a transgender person perceived as female might ask to be referred to with male pronouns, take a male name, or dress as a man (and analogously for people perceived as male). You see that the court did mention sexual orientation, but it's parenthetical to the main idea of "failure to conform to the female stereotype." That transgender people would be covered is an assumption, though. It's one that was made in some of the reports and I thought it a good one so I made it in the headline. Certainly transgender people "fail" to match gender stereotypes. That's actually a definition of "transgender":
2. noting or relating to a person who does not conform to societal gender norms or roles.
-- http://www.dictionary.com/browse/transgender [dictionary.com]