Three GOP governors and 13 Republican
attorneys general have signed on to an amicus brief asking the
Supreme Court to overturn a ruling in support of a fired transgender
employee.
The Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) successfully sued R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral
Homes in Michigan over its firing of Aimee Stephens after she told a
supervisor that she was transitioning to a woman. The ruling was the
first at the appellate level to conclude that sex discrimination
under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act covers bias against
transgender employees.
The Supreme Court is currently
reviewing whether to take up the case.
Three GOP governors – Matthew Bevin
of Kentucky, Paul LePage of Maine and Phil Bryant of Mississippi –
and 13 Republican attorneys general from Nebraska, Texas, Alabama,
Kansas, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming have joined the court
filing, Bloomberg
Law
reported.
Two of the states included in the brief
– Utah and Maine – are among the 20 states with LGBT workplace
protections.
The effort is being led by Nebraska
Attorney General Doug Peterson.
“The States' purpose is to note that
'sex' under the plain terms of Title VII does not mean anything other
than biological status,” the brief states.
If the EEOC wants to participate in the
case at the Supreme Court, it must get approval from the Department
of Justice, which has said that it does not believe Title VII
protects LGBT employees.