The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued a technical assistance document for “Protections Against Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.” The document briefly explains the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, No. 17-1618 (S. Ct. June 15, 2020) and the EEOC’s established legal positions on sexual-orientation and gender-identity-related workplace discrimination issues.

In Bostock, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of “sex,” bars employers from discriminating based on an employee’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The ruling came through a set of three cases that were consolidated for oral argument. All three cases turned on the same issue: whether the phrase “sex,” as used in Title VII, includes an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The Court explained, “discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex; the first cannot happen without the second.”