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Discrimination
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 Out
at Work : Building a Gay-Labor Alliance (Cultural Politics Series)
by Kitty Krupat (Editor), Patrick McCreery (Editor)
Today in thirty-nine states, employers may
legally fire workers simply because they are known or thought to
be gay. Clearly, the struggle against workplace discrimination
based on sexual orientation has a long way to go. In Out at Work,
a distinguished group of prominent gay rights activists, union
leaders and members, policymakers, and academics-including U.S.
Representative Barney Frank, AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney,
and rights advocate Urvashi Vaid-offers a spirited assessment of
the challenges faced by lesbians, gays, and other sexual
minorities on the job.
 The
Constitutional Underclass : Gays, Lesbians, and the Failure of
Class-Based Equal Protection by Evan Gerstmann
"Gays
and lesbians have long been the targets of legal discrimination
(think of the 1986 Supreme Court Bowers ruling upholding
anti-sodomy laws, Colorado's Amendment 2 banning gay rights
legislation, the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and so on), and
all efforts to pass legislation that would give them the same
protections given to other minorities such as blacks and women
have failed. For the time being, says Evan Gerstmann, gays and
lesbians facing discrimination "can only win by appealing to
judicial sympathy and intuitions about fairness rather than by
invoking any coherent legal principle." But, he continues,
the struggle for class-based gay and lesbian rights should not be
considered an issue unto itself, but should be looked at within
the entire field of "equal protection" jurisprudence. In
that context, we learn that the courts have been reluctant to
expand the boundaries of class-based protection to include any
new group in more than two decades. Gerstmann's legal analysis is
detailed and informative, and his conclusion--that it may be more
profitable in the long run for activists to focus on rights
involved rather than on their own identities--is
provocative." --Ron Hogan
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From The Religious Tolerance Website.
Excerpt:
As of mid-1996, Americans can be legally fired
from their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation in 41
states. The number is unchanged by 2000-MAY.
Employment discrimination is the most common
complaint received by the American Civil Liberties Union
from gays and lesbians. However, a number of surveys promoted by
conservative Christian organizations claim that gays and lesbians
have higher incomes than heterosexuals, and thus have no need of
civil rights protection in employment.
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The ACLU keeps resources on ENDA (and DOMA),
with an archive of press releases, fact sheets, ACLU's stance on
ENDA and more.
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From the ACLU
All too often people who perform their job well
are fired simply because they are gay. They seldom have any
recourse to fight this blatant discrimination. The stories below
demonstrate that just how much ENDA is needed.
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Ten states out of fifty plus the
District of Columbia... This page from the ACLU lists states
and local governments that have laws on the books protecting LGBT
people against work discrimiantion.
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HRC WorkNet is a national source of information
on workplace policies and laws surrounding sexual orientation and
gender identity.
No federal law protects lesbian, gay, bisexual
or transgendered workers from discrimination on the basis of their
sexual orientation or gender identity. With that in mind, HRC
launched the Documenting
Discrimination Project six years ago to gather first-hand
testimony and accounts of job discrimination. Our objective is to
to better communicate these stories to lawmakers and their staffs,
so that one day all Americans can have uniform protection under
the law.
You can find lists of companies and corporations
that protect LGBT workers.
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