Harvard experts call ruling on LGBT rights a landmark
Harvard faculty members in law and gender issues declared Monday’s Supreme Court ruling protecting gay and transgender workers a landmark for LGBT rights. “The scope of this is extraordinary,” said Michael Bronski, a professor of the practice in media and activism and a longtime LBGT advocate. “I would say it’s a bigger decision than Obergefell v. Hodges [which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015]. That was a nondiscrimination decision that affected a specific group of people, those who wanted to get married. Whereas this is a nondiscrimination decision that affects 9 million people.” The 6-3 decision in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County affirmed that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids job discrimination based on a person’s race, religion or sex, also covers sexual orientation and gender identity. The biggest surprise — and for some, the most delicious irony — was that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, J.D. ’91, President...