Can gay people be refused service
"We Do No Such Thing": What the 303 Resourceful Decision Means and Doesn't Mean for Anti-Discrimination and Common Accommodation Laws
Businesses offering expressive services do not have a First Amendment right to refuse to help customers based on their identity. The SCOTUS decision merely recognizes a business’s right to decide not to offer certain products to anyone.
David Cole,
Former ACLU Legal Director
Can a bakery that objects to marriage equality refuse to trade a cake to a gay couple for their wedding? This question, or some variant thereof, has occupied courts even before marriages for same-sex couples were legally acknowledged. In June 2023, in 303 Resourceful v. Elenis, the Supreme Court addressed this question in a case asking whether a wedding website design business could refuse to design websites for weddings of gay couples. The court ruled for the business. But properly understood, the judgment does not license discrimination; it merely recognizes that where a business will not provide a particular product or service to anyone, it has the right to reject it to a gay couple. T
LGBTQ Rights
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The legal landscape for LGBTQ people is constantly evolving. If you think you contain been discriminated against and would like our assistance, please see our Report LGBTQ and HIV Discrimination Page and we can help you figure out whether you are protected under federal or state laws.
Can an employer discriminate against me because of my sexual orientation or gender identity?
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Employers with 15 or more employees are prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act from discriminating on the basis of sex. Some courts have ruled that Title VII also bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Supreme Court recently announced it will get up this question in three cases. In addition, many states and cities have laws that ban this kind of discrimination.
If you believe that your rights have been violated
If you consider that you have experienced discrimination at work, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has taken the position that LGBTQ people are protected under Title VII. Try to document
What the 303 Artistic Decision Means for Anti-Discrimination and Widespread Accommodation Laws
David Cole, ACLU Legal Director
Can a bakery that objects to marriage equality refuse to sell a cake to a male lover couple for their wedding? This interrogate, or some variant thereof, has occupied courts even before marriages for gay couples were legally recognized. In June 2023, in 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Supreme Court addressed this scrutinize in a case asking whether a wedding website style business could oppose to design websites for weddings of same-sex couples. The court ruled for the business. But properly understood, the decision does not license discrimination; it merely recognizes that where a business will not provide a particular product or service to anyone, it has the right to refuse it to a gay couple. That exception should not apply to most applications of anti-discrimination laws, which require only identical treatment, and perform not require businesses to provide any particular service or product. As I explain in more detail in this Yale Law Journal article and as we argue in this model little, 303 Creative does not create a First Amendment right to discriminate.
Can a b
Did the Supreme Court Tell Businesses Can Now Discriminate Against LGBT Customers—and Employees Too?
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that businesses can now legally oppose service to LGBT people in specific circumstances. Its decision in 303 Imaginative v. Elenis allowed a graphic designer to rely on her First Amendment right to free speech to refuse to build wedding websites for gay couples. This opinion single-handedly upended non-discrimination laws in the marketplace, but its effect is even more far-reaching: as early as the same day as the ruling, it was used to argue for the right to terminate LGBT employees.
LGBT People Acquire Been Under Attack
It was only 20 years ago that consensual gay sex was decriminalized in the United States. Since then, marriage was opened to same-sex couples (2015), and non-discrimination protections in employment were applied to many LGBT people across the country (2020).
Oh, how things have changed. More than 400 anti-LGBT bills acquire been proposed in articulate legislatures in just the past year. Hearkening support to the most virulent homophobia of the 70s, LGBT people are now casually being referred to as “child groom