A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania [official website] ruled [order, PDF] Friday that Title VII’s protection from employment discrimination based on sex extends to sexual orientation. The ruling came as the court refused to dismiss a case where the plaintiff alleged discrimination based on his LGBT status creating a hostile work environment leading to discharge. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought forth the complaint after a manager regularly used gay slurs against an employee and inquired about his sex life. The company filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds that the employee failed to state a legally cognizable claim. The court held that the behavior was a violation of current civil rights legislation because it was rooted in the idea that the plaintiff ‘s sexual orientation was not in line with what the manager believed a man’s should be.

That someone can be subjected to a barrage of insults, humiliation, hostility and/or changes to the terms and conditions of their employment, based upon nothing more than the aggressor’s view of what it means to be a man or a woman, is exactly the evil Title VII was designed to eradicate. Because this Court concludes that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a subset of sexual stereotyping and thus covered by Title VII’s prohibitions on discrimination “because of sex,” Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss on the ground that the EEOC’s Complaint fails to state a claim for which relief can be granted will be denied.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has been a controversial issue in the US. In December a federal judge ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is prohibited [JURIST report] under a law that protects against gender-based discrimination. Last 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.