Texas judge cuts protections for LGBTQ+ workers, transgender youth

[In It to Win It]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-judge-cuts-protections-lgbtq-201858348.html

Biden administration guidelines designed to protect LGBTQ+ workers and transgender youth are “unlawful” and based on a misinterpretation of case law, a federal judge ruled this week in a lawsuit brought against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In guidance issued last year, the EEOC clarified that barring transgender workers from using facilities or pronouns consistent with their gender identity constitutes sex discrimination in accordance with the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which protects employees from workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Paxton sued the EEOC last September, arguing that states should have the ability to enact their own policies regarding things like bathroom usage. Paxton in his complaint said the guidance was an act of “extreme” federal overreach that puts women and children at risk.

The lawsuit was amended by Paxton in March to include HHS as a defendant after the department released new rules intended to protect access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed U.S. district court judge for the Northern District of Texas, has now ruled that the guidance issued by both the EEOC and HHS are “unlawful.”

While Title VII – a portion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination based on characteristics including sex – prevents employers from discriminating against workers because of sexual orientation or gender identity, it does not protect “correlated conduct,” such as restroom or pronoun usage, Kacsmaryk wrote in the Oct. 1 ruling.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Federal judge rules Texas employers can discriminate against LGBT-'related conduct'

I have not read this opinion but this ruling is horrible. I will be shocked if this opinion is not appealed even though the 5th Circuit may affirm. First, we need to get rid of Paxton and get an AG who is not under indictment. Second, we need to codify the protections of LGBTQIA rights in federal law.

Link to tweet

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Federal-judge-rules-Texas-can-discriminate-17491622.php

An LGBT Texan can be fired from a job because of the way they dress, their pronouns or the bathroom they use, a federal judge ruled.

The ruling stemmed from a suit Texas brought in September of last year, just months after the Biden administration issued guidance showing states how to comply with federal anti-discrimination protections. A federal judge in Tennessee had already stayed the directives in 20 other states as part of a separate court case.

In a 33-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk said the Biden guidance incorrectly interpreted the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that workplace discrimination based on sexuality or gender identity is unconstitutional.....

Kacsmaryk also disagreed that gender dysphoria could qualify as a disability under federal anti-discrimination law.

That guidance issued over the summer by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission came out after Paxton issued an opinion this February finding that the care could constitute child abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott then directed the state’s child welfare agency to begin investigating parents of transgender children who received the care.

I have never understood Log Cabin Republicans. The regular GOP spits on these people and treat them like crap. Someday they will realize that they need to change parties if they want to have rights