Georgia man brings gay rights case to U.S. Supreme Court
Over the past 35 years, gays and lesbians have won enormous U.S. Supreme Court victories that pulled the LGBTQ community ever closer to legal equality.
The court overturned criminal sodomy laws in 1986, required the government to extend benefits to gay couples in 2013 and, in its landmark ruling four years ago, legalized same-sex marriage.Now a Georgia man finds himself at the center of what is expected to be the next big ruling on gay rights, the high court’s first with a new, solidly conservative majority of justices.
The Doraville man pressed his case to the federal appeals courts in Atlanta, which ruled against him. The court said Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, not a person’s sexual orientation.Clayton County is asking the Supreme Court to uphold that decision.“When Congress prohibited sex discrimination in employment approximately 55 years ago, it did not simultaneously prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” the county said. “The text of Title VII does not include sexual orientation or homosexuality as a protected class.”
In a statement, Jack Hancock, a lawyer for the county, said, “Mr. Bostock’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with his termination. Mr. Bostock was terminated as a result of an audit of juvenile court funds for which he was responsible.”Bostock said the allegations are baseless. “I did nothing wrong,” he said.
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/georgia-man-brings-gay-rights-case-supreme-court/STc0SLL3CbP5AoRJC3PlaI/
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