Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, et al. (U.S. Supreme Court, 2017)

This amicus brief case asks the Supreme Court to grant a petition for certiorari and resolve the question of whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation through its prohibition of discrimination “because of . . . sex.” In April 2015, petitioner Jameka Evans filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Georgia alleging that her former employer, Georgia Regional Hospital, fired her because she is gay, does not act “in a traditional woman manner,” and because of her masculine gender expression. Evans, who was employed as a security officer at the hospital, alleged that she was “punished because [her] status as a gay female did not conform to [her] department head’s . . . gender stereotypes associated with women.” Evans brought claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the hospital discriminated against her because of her sexual orientation and her nonconformity with gender norms of appearance and demeanor. There is a split on this legal question among the circuits and among federal agencies, with the Seventh Circuit and the EEOC finding that Title VII does prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and the Eleventh Circuit and the Department of Justice finding that it does not. ADL joined a coalition of LGBTQ rights groups in asking the Supreme Court to resolve this question.