Scanlon Statement on Landmark SCOTUS Decision Protecting LGBTQ Americans

Press Release

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex, also prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, and a member of the Transgender Equality Task Force, released the following statement on this landmark decision:

"Today's decision from our highest court reinforces that every American should be treated as equal in the eyes of the law. While it saddens me that Aimee Stephens, one of the plaintiffs, is not here today to celebrate this milestone, this is a historic victory in our hard-fought, ongoing battle for LGBTQ equality, and guarantees that Americans in Pennsylvania and across the country cannot be fired from their job because of who they are or whom they love."

Congresswoman Scanlon, who led the first hour of debate on the Equality Act which passed the House last year, joined 151 members of Congress in authoring an amicus brief in support of the three cases decided by the court today: v. Altitude Express Inc., Bostock v. Clayton County, and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC & Aimee Stephens.

The members wrote to urge the Supreme Court to clarify the law to reflect what is already widely recognized: that LGBTQ Americans are protected against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII because sexual orientation and gender identity are inherently an aspect of a person's "sex."

In the 6--3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said: "Ours is a society of written laws. Judges are not free to overlook plain statutory commands on the strength of nothing more than suppositions about intentions or guesswork about expectations. In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law."

Today's decision will also extend employment protections to LGBTQ Pennsylvanians as the Commonwealth does not have a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

A copy of the SCOTUS decision can be found here.

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