WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department filed a brief Wednesday arguing that LGBT people are not protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
HUFFPost reported tha DOJ lawyers, arguing under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in which they said the department did not believe the law ― which bans discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin ― applied to lesbian and gay people. The brief was filed as part of a lawsuit filed by a now-deceased skydiving instructor, Donald Zarda, who said he was fired for his sexual orientation.
LGBTQ advocacy groups swiftly condemned the Justice Department, hours after President Donald Trump ordered that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the military.
James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project, said, “On the day that will go down in history as Anti-LGBT Day, comes one more gratuitous and extraordinary attack on LGBT people’s civil rights. The Sessions-led Justice Department and the Trump administration are actively working to expose people to discrimination.
“Fortunately, courts will decide whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people, not an Attorney General and a White House that are hell-bent on playing politics with people’s lives. We are confident that the courts will side with equality and the people.”
Lambda Legal filed the original amicus brief on behalf of Zarda. Sharon McGowan, Director of Strategy, of Lambda Legal said, “As today’s filing demonstrates, Jeff Sessions clearly intends to inflict the maximum amount of damage on LGBT people as long as he is at the helm of the Justice Department. Lambda Legal will continue to resist the virulent anti-LGBT agenda of this administration, and we are confident that, in the end, the rights of LGBT people will be vindicated both in courts of law and in the court of public opinion.”
Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement following the filing, “In the second Trump administration attack on LGBT rights today, the Sessions Justice Department filed a legal brief arguing that our landmark federal employment discrimination law, Title VII, does not protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Trump administration’s court filing contravenes recent court decisions and guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that recognizes such protection. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights proudly stands with LGBT Americans and their allies who seek relief from discrimination in our judicial system.”
“Attacks against the LGBTQ community at all levels of government continue to pour in from the Trump-Pence administration,” said Sarah Warbelow, HRC Legal Director. “In one fell swoop, Trump’s DOJ has provided a roadmap for dismantling years of federal protections and declared that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people may no longer be protected by landmark civil rights laws such as the Fair Housing Act, Title IX, or Title VII. For over a decade, courts have determined that discrimination on the basis of LGBTQ status is unlawful discrimination under federal law. Today’s filing is a shameful retrenchment of an outmoded interpretation that forfeits faithful interpretation of current law to achieve a politically-driven and legally specious result.”
