Employment Law- Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the Workplace Research Paper

Employment Law- Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the Workplace - Research Paper Example Sexual orientation or sexual preference was a topic that many people avoided for fear of retaliation. Employers do not have the right to discriminate against an individual based on his sexual orientation or preference. Who a person is involved with should not have any bearing on qualifications or work ethics. Literature review According to irem.org (2007), as of July 2007, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was prohibited in the states of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, and the states where discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not prohibited included Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma. In Colorado, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was not prohib ited until August, 2007. In the states of Alaska, Delaware, and Indiana, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was only prohibited in the state employment whereas in the states of Louisiana and Montana, protection was only offered to the public employees. Likewise, as of July 2007, discrimination on the basis of gender identity was prohibited in the states of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New Mexico whereas it was not prohibited in the states of Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma. In Colorado, discrimination on the basis of gender identity was prohibited in August 2007 whereas in Indiana, protection was only offered to the state employees. This analysis suggests that in discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is not prohibited in the majority of states in the US. Twenty states in the US along with Washington, D.C. have enforced the anti-discrimination laws that prohibit any kinds of discriminatory practices on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. The first state in the US that enacted the anti-discrimination law was Wisconsin in the year 1982. Since 2002, seven states in the US have enforced similar laws. The Iowa Civil Rights Act was modified around the end of May, 2007, â€Å"when the Governor signed S.F. 427 into law making it illegal to discriminate in employment, public accommodation, credit, housing, and education based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity† (irem.org, 2007, p. 2). Oregon’s governor made the legislation part of the law on 9 May 2007, according to which discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as banned. According to Lambda Legal (2013), 49.97 per cent of the gay, lesbian, and bisexu al adults in the US live in states with anti-discriminatory laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation in numerous sectors including housing, employment, and the public accommodations. This percentage excludes the population of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults that are residents of the cities with ordinances that prohibit the discrimination on