A federal civil rights law prohibiting workplace gender bias also bars discrimination based on sexual orientation, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday.
The ruling, which stems from a case in which Long Island skydiving instructor Donald Zarda was fired after coming out as gay, marks a defeat for the Trump Justice Department–who had argued that the law did not extend to sexual orientation.
Zarda’s case was dismissed by a lower court in 2010. His estate appealed that decision after the adventurer died during a BASE-jumping accident. The appeal was backed by dozens of companies, including Google, Microsoft, CBS and Viacom.
Lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender groups and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission argued that sexual orientation is a function of a person’s gender. The E.E.O.C. has repeatedly argued that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” protects gay employees as well.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Monday in the 10-3 decision.
In the ruling, circuit Judge Robert Katzmann writes that even though Congress had not yet opted to address gay bias in Title VII, laws ”often go beyond the principal evil to cover reasonably comparable evils.”
“No employer should be able to penalize its employees because of who they love,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office filed brief in support of Zarda, said in a statement Monday.
The 7th U.S. Circuit court in Chicago last year became the first court to rule that Title VII bans gay bias in the workplace.