This month is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and we have some extra reasons to celebrate this year thanks to our progress in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve also seen some progress on the civil rights front, including last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that for the first time ever recognized LGBTQ+ workers’ rights in declaring that employers have no constitutional right to fire workers for their sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression.
Still, it’s not like we don’t have any remaining challenges. Far from it, beyond a few recent Supreme Court rulings, America remains a patchwork of different legal realities for our communities when it comes to discrimination. To this day, 28 states and multiple U.S. territories continue to allow some levels of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. One June 1 of this very year, the first day of Pride Month, Florida became the eighth state to mandate discrimination against transgender students who seek to participate in school athletics.
We may have come a long way in the last five decades, but we still have a long way yet to go to achieve true and equal justice under the law… And in society at large. In the days ahead, we’ll talk more about what we still must do. I just didn’t want to go any longer without noticing that it’s June. Happy Pride Month, everyone.
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