All posts tagged "Discrimination"

A judge has ruled this month that the anti-discrimination agency under President Donald Trump engaged in discrimination against a transgender employee, which the former worker called "devastating."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, was formed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act to enforce anti-discrimination laws in American workplaces, Mother Jones reports. But a judge's ruling this month determined that under the Trump administration, "the federal agency tasked with helping workers who experienced hostile work environments became a hostile work environment itself."

EEOC Director of Information Governance and Strategy Marc Seawright, who identifies as a queer trans man, was “forced to resign because EEOC leadership engaged in discrimination against transgender employees, including the claimant,” administrative judge Mary Shea of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board wrote in a ruling this month....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Beginning Monday, California employers will be barred from discriminating against employees who use marijuana in their off hours. Assembly Bill 2188 requires employers to change how they test for marijuana use among employees, using tests that show current impairment and not just past usage. The law carves out some exceptions, such as for those who work in the construction trades. “Technology to test for marijuana impairment has actually advanced quite a bit, so basically employers can now just test for THC — the psychoactive component in cannabis — and that can show impai......

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Kansas City Fire Department over allegations of racial discrimination within the fire department, The Star has learned. Three Black firefighters say they were interviewed within the last year about racism they have faced within the fire service and their complaints of a hostile work environment. They named others who have been interviewed, as well. The inquiries began months after The Kansas City Star published a series of stories in December 2020 detailing systemic racism and sex discrimination within the department. Shera......

A group of LGBTQ veterans who were discharged because of their sexual orientation filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Defense seeking to end the discrimination they say they still have to face more than a decade after the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” DADT, a discriminatory policy adopted by the Pentagon in 1983, allowed for the discharge of openly LGBTQ service members and barred LGBTQ people from enlisting in the service. The law was repealed in September 2011, but thousands of LGBTQ veterans still feel its effect to this day, according to the lawsuit. “Over the decade fol......

CHICAGO — In 2004, Jackie McKethen, a transgender woman, walked into a Springfield bar, ordered a drink and struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to her. When she ordered her second drink, McKethen, of Crete, said the bartender told her he couldn't serve her. When she asked why, she said the bartender told her that another man, who had moved to the other end of the bar after she started talking to the man next to her, expressed concern. “He said ‘There’s a gentleman at the other end of the bar that doesn’t want to encourage you to stay,’” McKethen said. McKethen said she and the b......

The Supreme Court's decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, ruling for Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer who was afraid she'd be forced to serve a same-sex couple even though no such couples asked her to, ostensibly is just about compelled speech, and not a general broadside against all antidiscrimination law.

But that won't be the end of it, warned Emory University law professor Timothy Holbrook in an opinion piece for CNN. This ruling, authored by Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch, is just the beginning — and it could encourage "widespread" discrimination against LGBTQ people.

"Although many view 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis as a religious freedom case, it is far broader," wrote Holbrook. "Smith’s objections to same-sex marriage are religiously based, but that is irrelevant to the decision because her claim was based on free speech. That means her objections, or anyone else’s, could be for any reason, including outright prejudice. As such, this decision opens the door to the erosion of anti-discrimination laws of all sorts."...