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

Statistics reveal that there are close to 600,000 LGBT individuals living in New York City, of which 100,000 are senior citizens. About 48% of LGBT same sex couples who applied for affordable housing, however, have suffered discrimination in relationship to living conditions. An organization called SAGE has taken up efforts to create affordable housing for Read More

  The United States Supreme Court announced at the end of June that the court will hear a case involving a bakery owner who refused to make a cake for a couple on the basis of the baker’s religious views concerning same-sex couples. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court in October. Read More

The United States is one of three countries in addition to the Ukraine and Palau that voted against a United Nations resolution that requested the condemnation of the glorification of Nazism. The resolution, entitled “Combating Glorification of Nazism, Neo-Nazism and Other Practices That Contribute To Fueling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Read More

  Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, individuals in every single state are allowed to marry one another regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This ruling impacted not only a couple’s ability to hold themselves out as legally married in the name of love, but also enables a couple to Read More

As American citizens, we know that our most basic constitutional rights protect freedom of religion as outlined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The First Amendment contemplates the separation of church and state, as we have discussed before, and ensures our absolute right to practice a faith of our choosing. The government Read More

When our grandchildren look back on the year 2016 in their history classes, they may very well find it under a chapter titled something like “2016 Controversies: A Year of Elections, Olympics, and Bathroom-Related Lawsuits.” Although the first two subjects only really demand our undivided attention every four years, the ongoing disagreements over bathroom laws Read More

If you watch the news or television at all, then you have undoubtedly seen the recent presidential campaigns lambasting each opponent. Recently, Donald Trump claimed that if he loses Pennsylvania in the election, it would only mean one thing – voter fraud. He said in no uncertain terms that if Hillary Clinton wins the state, Read More