In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States declared that LGBTQ people are protected under federal employment discrimination laws, specifically Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What this means is that you can no longer be fired from your job for being gay or transgender.
The list of protected classes has long excluded sexual orientation and gender identity. Through the legal system, three individuals – Gerald Bostock, Donald Zarda & Aimee Stephens – presented their terminations from their jobs to the courts to seek some justice in the discrimination that they had endured. Only Bostock was alive for the decision, as Zarda died in 2014 and Stephens died in May 2020.
Up until this decision, it was legal to be fired for being gay or transgender in 17 states, including Texas. That – thanks to the SCOTUS – is now a thing of the past.