[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] ruled [order] Tuesday that sexual orientation discrimination is prohibited under a law that protects gender-based discrimination. The order pertains to the motion to dismiss brought by Pepperdine University challenging two female students’ claims that the school’s basketball coach wanted them removed from the team because they were dating. In the order, District Judge Dean Pregerson ruled that the Title IX act of 1972 [text] does provide for protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Pregerson stated that “[i]f Plaintiffs had been males dating females, instead of females dating females, they would not have been subjected to the alleged different treatment.” As a result of the ruling, the case may now move forward to trial.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been a controversial issue in the US. In November President Barack Obama’s expressed support [JURIST report] for legislation that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity through an amendment to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In July 2014 Obama signed an executive order [text] barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity [JURIST report] but, despite pressure, did not include any exemptions for religious organizations. In November 2013 the US Senate approved [JURIST report] the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [text], a bill outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, by a vote of 64 to 32, but it has made no progress in the House of Representatives.