Kaine Urges Court to Recognize Protections For LGBT Americans
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and 129 Members of Congress have filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., arguing that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is already prohibited under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 since these types of discrimination are inherently linked to sex discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of sex is banned under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“Different interpretations of Title VII have led to uncertainty in the workplace and left LGBT Americans inconsistently protected from workplace harassment and discrimination, despite applicable federal law,” wrote the Senators and Representatives. “We firmly believe that Title VII’s sex discrimination provision already prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity, and we urge the Court to overrule erroneous Second Circuit precedent to the contrary.”
Kaine cosponsored the Equality Act, legislation that would clarify and expand current civil rights laws to better protect people of color, women and LGBT Americans from discrimination. Among other provisions, the Equality Act would clarify existing law by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of explicitly protected classes in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Senators and Representatives wrote in the brief that “the Equality Act acknowledges that Title VII already protects against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. Amici explicitly sought not to overrule case law and administrative holdings that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are sex discrimination. We therefore took a ‘belt and suspenders’ approach when drafting the Equality Act’s substantive provisions. [T]he Equality Act would amend Title VII to explicitly include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ as protected characteristics alongside ‘sex.’ We believed this would help clarify the statute for the average American who would look at its text without the benefit of legal experience or a repository of case law.”
A full list of the Senators and Representatives signing the brief can be found below:
U.S. Senators:
- Jeffrey A. Merkley
- Tammy Baldwin
- Cory A. Booker
- Patrick Leahy
- Edward J. Markey
- Al Franken
- Barbara A. Mikulski
- Patty Murray
- Mazie K. Hirono
- Ron Wyden
- Dianne Feinstein
- Sheldon Whitehouse
- Kirsten Gillibrand
- Sherrod Brown
- Brian Schatz
- Bernard Sanders
- Jack Reed
- Martin Heinrich
- Richard Blumenthal
- Mark R. Warner
- Richard J. Durbin
- Tim Kaine
- Gary C. Peters
U.S. Representatives:
- David N. Cicilline
- Nancy Pelosi
- Steny H. Hoyer
- Theodore E. Deutch
- Eleanor Holmes Norton
- Mike Quigley
- Jackie Speier
- Elizabeth H. Esty
- 9) Brad Ashford
- Grace F. Napolitano
- Mark Pocan
- Michael M. Honda
- Robert A. Brady
- Barbara Lee
- Dina Titus
- Bonnie Watson Coleman
- Raúl M. Grijalva
- Frederica S. Wilson
- Tony Cárdenas
- Stephen F. Lynch
- Juan Vargas
- Ruben Gallego
- Tim Ryan
- Sean Patrick Maloney
- Donald Norcross
- Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr.
- Steve Israel
- Suzanne Bonamici
- Bill Foster
- Jerrold Nadler
- Alan Lowenthal
- Donald S. Beyer Jr.
- Patrick E. Murphy
- Julia Brownley
- Janice Hahn
- Matt Cartwright
- James P. McGovern
- Hakeem Jeffries
- Norma J. Torres
- Kathy Castor
- Mike Thompson
- José E. Serrano
- Steve Cohen
- Joe Crowley
- Danny K. Davis
- John Conyers Jr.
- Scott H. Peters
- Chris Van Hollen
- Ed Perlmutter
- Derek Kilmer
- Diana DeGette
- Zoe Lofgren
- Jan Schakowsky
- Lois Capps
- Eric Swalwell
- Suzan DelBene
- Dan Kildee
- Grace Meng
- Alan Grayson
- Alcee L. Hastings
- Sam Farr
- Betty McCollum
- Mark Takano
- Rubén Hinojosa
- Niki Tsongas
- Sander M. Levin
- André Carson
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
- Nydia M. Velázquez
- Ted W. Lieu
- Lois Frankel
- Linda T. Sánchez
- Joseph P. Kennedy
- Adam B. Schiff
- Jared Polis
- Seth Moulton
- Denny Heck
- Debbie Dingell
- Frank Pallone, Jr.
- Tammy Duckworth
- William R. Keating
- Lucille Roybal-Allard
- Peter Welch
- Loretta Sanchez
- Ben Ray Luján
- Kathleen M. Rice
- Luis V. Gutiérrez
- Carolyn B. Maloney
- Gregory W. Meeks
- Keith Ellison
- James R. Langevin
- Katherine Clark
- Brendan F. Boyle
- Susan Davis
- Elijah E. Cummings
- Marc Veasey
- Joaquin Castro
- John Garamendi
- Jim McDermott
- Yvette D. Clarke
- Brian Higgins
- Robert C. Scott
- Jim Himes
- Chellie Pingree
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