Pride in the Fight for Equality

Family Values @ Work celebrates the long-overdue recognition that firing someone on the basis of LGBTQ+ identity is sex discrimination and a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court was both a welcome surprise from the conservative-leaning Court and testament to decades of courageous struggle by LGBTQ+ activists.

This decision is a cornerstone in the movement to ensure that all workers and their families are included in our nation’s prosperity and every working person’s contribution to that prosperity is given due respect and properly valued. Family Values @ Work applauds this victory and also acknowledges the long road ahead. In addition to protection from unjust firing, LGBTQ+ workers need an end to discrimination in every area, along with living wages, access to healthcare and child care, and paid sick days and family and medical leave that allow us to heal and take care of our loved ones. 

In this time of public health crisis and uprising for Black lives, we join our voices with those calling for a new society and a new economy that will meet the needs of all communities under attack. What many considered the “normal” way of life—before COVID-19 and before our current reckoning with racism—wasn’t working for most of us. Our “normal” way of life doesn’t acknowledge our nation’s historic and ongoing dependence on coerced or underpaid labor and the marginalization of women—particularly black and brown women—immigrants, indigenous and enslaved people and their descendants. And it doesn’t acknowledge our nation’s systematic disenfranchisement of LGBTQ+ people and families.

We need to build on this significant victory to fully realize the equality we need. The White House continues to roll back LGBTQ+ rights—particularly for trans people—even as communities are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the violent legacy of racism. We will continue to organize until Congress passes laws that ensure comprehensive protections in access to housing, education and healthcare—like those in the proposed Equality Act—so that LGBTQ+ people and our families can experience lasting social and financial justice.