Earlier this month, the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put forward a new proposal to rescind nondiscrimination protections that had been put into place by the Obama Administration. The protections that were added by Obama included discrimination based on religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Now, President Trump wants to remove Read More

In August 2019, the Trump Administration received substantial criticism when it proposed a policy that would grant some federal contractors the right to discriminate against individuals who do not share the employers’ religious views.  Many organizations who fight for LGBTQ rights have responded that this policy is dangerous, shameless, and unconscionable. This decision also substantially Read More

The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case concerning a 2015 Montana law which allows tax credits to be used for religious school instruction. Montana’s highest court has already struck down the program on the basis that it violates the state’s constitutional ban on providing state aid to religious organizations. The outcome Read More

In a recent court filing, the Department of Justice announced plans to ask the United States Supreme Court to review President Trump’s ban on military service for transgender individuals. The Department of Justice announced that it plans to file a request before the Supreme Court by November 23, which means that the justices would be Read More

  At the beginning of July 2018, President Trump announced his decision to appoint Brett Kavanaugh to fill the spot left by the retirement of Justice Kennedy, and last month, Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in to the Supreme Court. While Justice Kavanaugh previously served on the US Court of Appeals for Read More

A directive was recently issued by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that allows federal contractors to raise religious freedom as a defense when they are charged with job discrimination. The Federal Contract Compliance Program, which is the government agency tasked with making sure that businesses that contract with the federal Read More

  In May of 2018, Democratic senators introduced a bill to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which according to the original sponsors of the law has been misappropriated and used to discriminate against numerous individual including those who identify as LGBTQ. This bill is significant because it has the potential to change a twenty-five-year-old Read More

  Recently, in the case of Zarda v. Altitude Express, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination includes sexual orientation discrimination. The case arose when Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who identifies as gay, claimed that his position was terminated after a customer complained that the worker Read More

  Morgantown, West Virginia recently passed a non-discrimination law to protect LGBTQ individuals as part of a human rights ordinance. This addition came when the seven-person Morgantown City Council voted unanimously to add non-discrimination language to the city’s existing ordinance. While this might seem like a small change, Morgantown is only the 11th city in Read More

  In a recent action that has significant impact for individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, the Justice Department filed a brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit arguing that federal civil rights laws do not protect individuals from discrimination due to their gender identity or sexual Read More