Letter to the House on the Congressional Pledge to Prohibit Gender Orientation Discrimination

Re: Congressional Pledge to Prohibit Discrimination Based on Gender Orientation 

Dear Representative: 

Knowing your commitment to eradicating discrimination in all aspects of employment, the American Civil Liberties Union urges you to take an additional step toward fairness for all workers. We appreciate your strong record of support for equality in the workplace. For example, your cosponsorship of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and your pledge to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in your own congressional office, are important steps to achieving fairness at work. Your actions also advance the long congressional tradition of responding to the unfairness of workers being denied employment on the basis of characteristics such as race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and disability. 

The ACLU urges you to extend your commitment to fairness in employment one step further by pledging to bar discrimination in your own congressional office on the basis of gender orientation. The pledge clarifies that your office will not discriminate against anyone. It assures all workers, including transgendered employees, that they will not be judged on how they fit into a specific gender role. 

Although only a few jurisdictions specifically prohibit discrimination based on gender orientation or gender identity, transgendered workers have also obtained legal protection from employment discrimination in a growing number of courts, states, and localities that have provided protection under laws barring discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation. The ACLU believes those interpretations of the law are correct and should protect persons based on gender orientation. 

However, we also have found that the failure so far of many courts and states to use sex or sexual orientation antidiscrimination laws to bar discrimination against persons not conforming to commonly held views on gender roles has left many transgendered employees vulnerable to pervasive discrimination based on gender orientation. In fact, the ACLU has represented numerous employees who have lost job opportunities solely because employers based their decisions on how a person fits into a specific gender role. 

Although the pledge is only a modest step toward eliminating such widespread discrimination, it represents an important commitment to including everyone in the workforce. For that reason, the ACLU urges you to sign the pledge. 

Thank you for your attention to this request.

Very truly yours, 

Laura W. Murphy
Director 

Christopher E. Anders
Legislative Counsel