Employment Bulletin
Less than one month after the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a controversial interpretation in Complainant v. Anthony Foxx, Secretary, Department of Transportation (Federal Aviation Administration) in which it found that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation. The EEOC’s decision is a significant development in the law because it rejected several previous courts of appeals decisions holding that Title VII does not prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation. In this case, a supervisory air traffic control specialist with the Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) filed an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint alleging that the FAA subjected him to discrimination on the basis of sex. Specifically, the complainant alleged that he was discriminated against when he was denied a permanent position as a front line manager because he is gay. The EEO complaint was initially dismissed on timeliness grounds. The complainant appealed the dismissal to the EEOC, which reversed, concluding that the complainant’s allegations of discrimination on the basis of his sexual orientation stated a claim of discrimination on the basis of sex within the meaning of Title VII, and that such claim was timely. In light of its conclusion, the EEOC remanded the case for a decision on the merits.
