Starbucks has decided to institute company-wide training on implicit bias. The company’s decision came on the heels of an incident where Starbucks employees called the police to remove some black people from the store for doing something that white people do all the time. These black people were waiting for…
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and other Republican Senators have reintroduced a bill that would protect people and businesses that discriminate against LGBT people and people who have sex outside of marriage. The text of the reintroduced bill has not yet been released but the earlier version of the bill would…
The federal First Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a jury verdict against the Providence Fire Department (PFD) in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a lesbian who formerly served as a lieutenant in PFD. The plaintiff, Lori Franchina, suffered severe sexual harassment and after she reported the harassment to…
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in New York, has decided that the full court—all eleven active judges—will consider whether sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by the Civil Rights Act. If the full Second Circuit decides that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of…
A class action against Walmart that we previously reported about has settled. The case involved Walmart’s refusal to provide health insurance to spouses of gay and lesbian employees. Walmart began providing health insurance to the spouses of gay and lesbian employees in 2014 but continued to maintain that the law…
Earlier this month a federal court in Connecticut determined that a jury could reasonably find that the Hartford School District unlawfully discriminated against a teacher because of her sexual orientation. The teacher (who is the plaintiff in the lawsuit) and her female spouse both worked for the same school. After…
Many studies have documented wage gaps between men and women as well as between white people and minorities. A new study shows a similar wage gap between bisexual and heterosexual workers. The study found that bisexual men earn 11% to 19% less than heterosexual men and bisexual women earn 7%…
There is currently an effort underway to gather support for a ballot initiative that would remove protections for LGBT people from the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA). Michael Heath, the former head of the Maine Christian Civic League and who has reportedly compared homosexuality to sorcery, is leading the effort…
In a new study, a researcher has found that employers tend to discriminate against female applicants who are lesbian, bisexual, or transgender; applicants who the researcher categorized as “queer.” To conduct the study, the researcher created fictitious resumes that were identical in every respect except some indicated that the applicant…
A Massachusetts state court has held that a Catholic school violated the state’s law against sexual orientation discrimination when it fired its food services director because he was a gay man with a same-sex spouse. We previously reported on this case when it was filed. The Catholic school, Fontbonne Academy,…