In
a new attack on transgender people, the Department of Justice asked the US
Supreme Court on August 16th to review the definition of gender discrimination
and to exclude transgender people. At the moment transgender people are
protected by Article VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Last month Aimee Stephens won a case against unfair dismissal. She was sacked
in 2013 by a funeral company after she announced her decision to transition to
becoming a woman. The judge decided that she had lost her job because her
employer had a “stereotypical conception” of her sexual identity.
The Trump administration has now hit back with a different reading of Article
VII saying that it prohibits discrimination based on “biological sex” of a
person.
As a result of the intervention of the Department of Justice the Supreme Court
will now have to consider any new cases in this light.
