March 12, 2018
Authors: Drew Esposito and CJ Fultz
On March 7th, 2018, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals became the latest federal appellate court to hold that Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination includes LGBT employees.
In EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes the Claimant was a transgender individual born biologically male. For nearly six (6) years the Claimant had worked as the funeral director for the Funeral Home. The Claimant informed the owner of the funeral home that she was a transgender woman and planned on transitioning, which included beginning to dress in appropriate business attire for a woman. Two (2) weeks later, the Claimant was fired.
Initially, the EEOC’s lawsuit was dismissed by the trial court, holding that Title VII did not expressly cover LGBT discrimination and that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act provided the Funeral Home an exemption from Title VII. The 6th Circuit disagreed and held:
We hold that the EEOC could pursue a claim under Title VII on the ground that the Funeral Home discriminated against Stephens on the basis of her transgender status and transitioning identity. The EEOC should have had the opportunity, either through a motion for summary judgment or at trial, to establish that the Funeral Home violated Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex by firing Stephens because she was transgender and transitioning from male to female.
…Discrimination against employees, either because of their failure to conform to sex stereotypes or their transgender and transitioning status, is illegal under Title VII. The unrefuted facts show that the Funeral Home fired Stephens because she refused to abide by her employer’s stereotypical conception of her sex, and therefore the EEOC is entitled to summary judgment as to its unlawful-termination claim.
…
[R]equiring Rost to comply with Title VII’s proscriptions on discrimination does not substantially burden his religious practice. The district court therefore erred in granting summary judgment to the Funeral Home on the basis of its RFRA defense, and we REVERSE the district court’s decision on this ground. As Rost’s purported burdens are insufficient as a matter of law, we GRANT summary judgment to the EEOC with respect to the Funeral Home’s RFRA defense.
Employers covered by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals should take note, as this decision reverses prior decisions on the application of Title VII to their LGBT employees.