Sexual Orientation / Gender Identity Discrimination Category Archives — Page 3 of 3 — New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog Published by New Jersey Employment Attorneys

Published on: September 21, 2018

A Male Principal Called a ‘Brazen Hussy’ by a School Board Members Settles His New Jersey Discrimination Lawsuit for $307K

There many different types of ways that LGBT people can suffer discrimination in the workplace. Sometimes, LGBT people suffer employment discrimination simply because of who they are. Other times, though, the discriminatory animus arises not from the employee’s orientation or identity per se, but from the way in which the LGBT employee expresses him or herself. Regardless of whether your discrimination arose directly from your sexual orientation or indirectly based upon others’ perceptions of your gender expression as insufficiently conforming to their gender stereotypes, it is possible that you’ve suffered illegal discrimination. To learn more about your legal options, including going to court and seeking monetary compensation, be sure to contact an experienced New Jersey employment attorney.

People make all kinds of assumptions and engage in all manner of stereotyping when it comes to gender. Last year, an employee in California won a motion hearing in court and was permitted to proceed to trial on his claim that his employer fired him for being “too gay.” Specifically, the employee alleged that the employer took negative action not because he was homosexual but because he was gay and chose hairstyles and clothing accessories the employer considered insufficiently masculine.

If something of a similar nature happens to you in New Jersey, can you successfully sue your employer? Yes, you quite possibly can. New Jersey’s employment discrimination law forbids workplace discrimination based upon sexual orientation. It also bars employment discrimination based upon gender stereotypes.

Published on: June 6, 2018

Achieving Success in a New Jersey Discrimination Lawsuit by Proving the Existence of ‘Disparate Treatment’ by Your Employer

by Phillips & Associates

In discrimination cases, you can attempt to prove the existence of discrimination by showing that your employer’s practices and policies disproportionately harmed people of a protected class, which is called “disparate impact.” Alternatively, you can show that the employer treated you, a member of a protected class, less favorably than a comparable co-worker who was not a member of a protected class, which is “disparate treatment.” Each of these techniques requires presenting certain types of evidence to the court. To ensure that your discrimination case is as persuasive as possible, make sure that you have retained a skilled New Jersey discrimination attorney to represent you.

One example of a disparate treatment case was a lawsuit filed by an employee named Harold. Harold was a store manager at a pharmacy. At some point while on the job, Harold suspected a photo technician’s daughter of shoplifting. Harold did not report the shoplifting to his supervisors at first. Only when the daughter stole a customer’s wallet did Harold take action, contacting police. This was a failure to follow the company’s “loss prevention” policies. Allegedly due to Harold’s failure to follow those policies, the employer terminated Harold’s employment.

The manager sued his employer for discrimination. According to his claim, the failure to follow the policy was only a pretext for the real reasons he lost his job. Harold, a 61-year-old gay man, asserted that age and sexual orientation discrimination were the real motivators for his firing.

Published on: December 14, 2017

Sexual Orientation Discrimination and Legal Protections for LGBT People in New Jersey

by Phillips & Associates

One of the more frequently discussed issues within federal employment discrimination litigation is that of sexual orientation discrimination. Following two federal appeals court rulings from 2017 that reached opposite conclusions, some hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would step in and resolve the disagreement with finality. The high court recently decided, however, not to take a case that would have done so, leaving the question up to the various lower federal courts. Employees in New Jersey, however, have greater protections thanks to the Law Against Discrimination. If you suffered from discrimination at work because you are gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual, you should contact a New Jersey LGBT discrimination attorney to discuss your case and find out more about your rights.

The two federal cases were from Indiana and Georgia. Kimberly was a part-time college professor in South Bend, Indiana. The college rejected her six times for full-time positions and eventually terminated her part-time contract. Believing that the college made those decisions because she was openly lesbian, Kimberly sued the college for a violation of federal employment discrimination law (Title VII). The trial court threw out the professor’s case, but the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals revived it, ruling, for the first time, that sexual orientation discrimination was a type of sex discrimination and therefore illegal under Title VII.

Jameka, a security officer at a hospital in Savannah, Ga., faced a different problem. Jameka, although a lesbian, “did not broadcast her sexuality.” What was apparent, however, was her appearance: her hairstyle, her uniform, her shoes, her walk, and her speech all were more stereotypically male than female. Jameka sued for discrimination. In her case, both the trial court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her, concluding that her case essentially boiled down to a sexual orientation discrimination case, and Title VII did not prohibit sexual orientation discrimination.

Published on: June 16, 2017

Groundbreaking Federal Court Ruling Could Affect New Jersey Transgender Employees in the Future

by Phillips & Associates

A headline-making new federal court ruling regarding discrimination and the rights of transgender people in the workplace may not immediately affect workers in New Jersey, but it could play a role in the not-too-distant future. The ruling, which allowed a trans woman to pursue a disability discrimination case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, is not binding in New Jersey federal cases right now, but it could become so if the Third Circuit of Appeals reaches the issue and adopts the lower court’s conclusion.

Published on: April 6, 2017

Fired New Jersey Catholic School Counselor Allowed to Continue Pursuit of Sexual Orientation Discrimination Case

by Phillips & Associates

A recent case from Paramus, reported by northjersey.com, provides some helpful insight on how an employee may still be entitled to pursue her rights even in what might appear to be challenging conditions. A guidance counselor and basketball coach sued her former employer for sexual orientation discrimination. Even though the employer in this case was a Catholic school, the trial court and the Appellate Division both ruled that the religion exception did not automatically prevent this employee from pursuing her discrimination case.

Published on: March 22, 2017

Workplace Discrimination Against LGBT People and New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination

by Phillips & Associates

The issue of discrimination against LGBT people is again making legal headlines as a federal appeals court in Atlanta recently ruled that Title VII does not include within it a protection for workers who suffer discrimination based upon their sexual orientation. A federal appeals court in Chicago reached a similar conclusion last year. Fortunately for LGBT people in New Jersey, this state’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) provides clear and unmistakable prohibitions against workplace discrimination based upon a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.