You can still be fired for being gay in 27 states
While the United States is celebrating same-sex marriage, newlyweds can be fired for being LGBT in 27 states.
Marriages confers many benefits for couples, such as tax, immigration and inheritance rights and guarantees that partners will able to visit their spouse in hospital or prison.
However, there are an unbelievable 27 states that do not guarantee freedom from employment discrimination – meaning it is perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay, bisexual or transgender.
In two – Arkansas and Tennessee – employment protection laws are banned, meaning districts are prohibited from enacting their own laws on a local level.
Of those who do have some legal protections, three states do not protect on the basis of gender identity – New York, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
Rea Carey, of the National LGBT Taskforce told New Republic: “The situation now is you may have your home in one town and drive to another town for work and lose those protections.”
Even those that do have protection, there is always the threat of religious exemptions. On a federal level, ministers and religious leaders are exempt from complying with employment non-discrimination laws.
Federal employment non-discrimination laws have been introduced, and failed, in every Congress for the last twenty years.
The Department of Justice just announced that trans students had the right to use appropriate bathrooms on a federal level.
