U.S. Supreme Court endorses gay, transgender worker protections

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a watershed victory for LGBT rights, ruling that a landmark federal law forbidding workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees.

This report produced by Lisa Bernhard.

In a watershed victory for LGBTQ rights, the Supreme Court Monday ruled that federal law protecting workers from discrimination on the basis of sex also applies to gay and transgender people.

In a 6-to-3 decision, the justices ruled Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars companies from discriminating on the basis of gender – as well as race, color, national origin and religion – also applies to members of the LGBTQ community.

Writing the majority opinion: conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote, "Ours is a society of written laws ... An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law." The three justices that dissented: Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

LGBTQ advocacy groups welcomed the landmark decision as an important step in protecting gay and trans workers, more than half of whom live in states without explicit workplace protections – something Monday's ruling now extends to all gay and trans people nationwide.