From HRC:
Trump-Pence Administration Asserts Civil Rights Laws Won't Apply to LGBTQ People
DOJ files amicus brief in direct opposition to decades of legal interpretation from federal courts
WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued the following statement in response to an amicus brief filed by the Department of Justice arguing that Title VII does not protect lesbian, gay, or bisexual people on the basis of sex:
"Attacks against the LGBTQ community at all levels of government continue to pour in from the Trump-Pence Administration," said Sarah Warbelow, HRC Legal Director. "In one fell swoop, Trump's DOJ has provided a roadmap for dismantling years of federal protections and declared that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people may no longer be protected by landmark civil rights laws such as the Fair Housing Act, Title IX, or Title VII. For over a decade, courts have determined that discrimination on the basis of LGBTQ status is unlawful discrimination under federal law. Today's filing is a shameful retrenchment of an outmoded interpretation that forfeits faithful interpretation of current law to achieve a politically-driven and legally specious result."
The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.
From the American Civil Liberties Union:
NEW YORK The Justice Department filed a brief today arguing that LGBT people are not protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT & HIV Project, said:
"On the day that will go down in history as Anti-LGBT Day, comes one more gratuitous and extraordinary attack on LGBT people's civil rights. The Sessions-led Justice Department and the Trump administration are actively working to expose people to discrimination.
"Fortunately, courts will decide whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people, not an Attorney General and a White House that are hell-bent on playing politics with people's lives. We are confident that the courts will side with equality and the people."