Angela Giampolo of Giampolo Law. Angela Giampolo of Giampolo Law.
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The week of June 15 marked a movement toward equality amid a chaotic first half of 2020 for the LGBTQ community and—well, everyone. The U.S. Supreme Court shocked everyone with a 6-3 landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, and continued to baffle the country with its 5-4 decision later that week to uphold the DACA act that provides protections for the children of unlawful immigrants.

Specifically in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court held that federal law prohibits employment discrimination against LGBTQ workers by holding that the term "sex" in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act includes sexual orientation and gender identity and therefore makes it illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ employees.

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch lays out why in just five crisp sentences on the first page of his majority opinion: "In Title VII, Congress outlawed discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision; exactly what Title VII forbids."