A New York federal judge recently vacated a “conscience rule” created by the Trump administration that allows health care workers to refuse to participate or refer in procedures with which they have religious objections. This religious objection is most commonly raised in abortion or gender reassignment surgeries. The decision marks an advancement in women’s and Read More

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

Oral arguments in the case of In Re Gestational Agreement occurred before the Utah Supreme Court in 2017. While this was two years ago, the Utah Supreme Court only recently issued an opinion in this case. Even though the resulting opinion is 75 pages, the decision has the potential to greatly impact the lives of Read More

A florist who declined to create floral arrangements for a same sex wedding has announced plans to appeal her case to the United States Supreme Court after a Washington state court held that the woman violated the state’s civil rights law.  As a result, the Supreme Court of the United States now has the chance Read More

Tennessee recently became the first state in the southern part of the country with an affirmation of transgender protection with regards to hate crime law. The term “transgender” includes individuals who have a gender identity or expression that is different from the gender the person was assigned at birth. How Tennessee Previously Handled Transgender Protection Read More

  Earlier this year, Montevallo, Alabama passed an ordinance protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in relationship to housing, employment discrimination, and public accommodations. This is an historic event because Montevallo is only the second city in Alabama to pass an ordinance of this kind. Alabama is one Read More

A federal judge in Cincinnati, Ohio recently dismissed a lawsuit against a judge who denied a transgender person’s request for a name change. In making this decision, the judge noted that the proper way to challenge a judgment is to appeal rather than to initiate legal proceedings directly against the judge. How the Case was Read More

While Mississippi is one of 30 states that do not have LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws, several changes have recently occurred in the state regarding its approach to LGBTQ laws. Most noticeably, local communities in the state, including most recently Clarksdale, have passed LGBTQ-inclusive discrimination ordinances. Efforts by the Human Rights Campaign The creation of local LGBTQ 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

  A group of newly signed pro-trans bills includes a law that public schools in New Jersey will not be able to force transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that conflict with their gender identities. Instead, public schools are required to offer reasonable alternative arrangements to make sure that students remain safe and Read More