Massachusetts Law Continues to Protect against Gender Identity Discrimination Despite Federal Pronouncment

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced that his Justice Department rejects the idea that transgender people are protected under Title VII, the federal workplace discrimination statute, it received quick condemnation from a variety of sources. Significant as the proclamation may be at the federal level, however, Massachusetts residents need not be concerned, or pleased, as the case may be. Under Mass. Gen. L. ch. 151B, transgender and gay people remain well protected against employment discrimination based on their gender identities. They can continue to file complaints based on it at both the MCAD and in state courts.

The federal action comes at a time when Mr. Sessions’ justice department has been hostile to Title VII protections of the broader LGBT community. His Justice Department has argued that civil rights laws do not protect against sexual orientation discrimination. Under Title VII, which was passed by Congress in 1964 as part of the Civil Right Act, discrimination based on “sex, ” among other things, is illegal. The Obama administration and others, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), have interpreted “sex” as covering individuals based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Under the Massachusetts anti-discrimination statute, it’s unlawful for an employer, “because of the race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, which shall not include persons whose sexual orientation involves minor children as the sex object, genetic information, ancestry or status as a veteran of any individual to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or to discharge from employment such individual or to discriminate against such individual in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment, unless based upon a bona fide occupational qualification.”