Trump Is Fighting For Sexuality-Based Discrimination In the Workplace

In 2010 Donald Zarda was fired from his job with the skydiving company Altitude Express. According to Reuters, Zarda later filed a lawsuit accusing his former employer of discrimination based on his sexuality, having been fired shortly after he told a customer he was gay and they subsequently complained.

Now, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent lawyers to federal court to defend the rigidity Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects workers from discrimination based on sexuality. Though the law has since had its interpretation expanded to include race, sex, and religion, Trump's representatives want to assert that sexuality should be excluded from the fields of protection.

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"Sex stereotyping says that if you are a man attracted to a man, or a woman attracted to a woman, you're not behaving the way those genders are supposed to behave," said Jeremy Horowitz, a lawyer with The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to BuzzFeed. The organization has unwaveringly fought for sexual orientation be recognized under Title VII, even amid rising pressure on LGBTQ rights since Trump took office.

Though Zarda has died since he filed his suit, his estate continues to fight, most recently having had a full panel of judges in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hear the case earlier this week. Read the full Reuters report, here.