Can you be fired for being gay? Answer depends largely on where you live

[Behind the Aegis]

Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, garnered national attention this month after she returned to work at an evangelical Christian school that bars LGBTQ employees and students. While the Virginia school’s policies sparked criticism, they also highlighted the complicated patchwork of employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers across the country.

“If you are an LGBT employee in the U.S., you face a very complicated legal landscape when it comes to whether or not you can be discriminated against by a prospective employer,” Ineke Mushovic, executive director of Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank, told NBC News.

This “complicated legal landscape” involves conflicting court rulings, differing interpretations of civil rights laws by federal agencies, a patchwork of state laws and carve outs for religiously affiliated organizations.

THE COURTS

For starters, there is no federal law that expressly prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. However, LGBTQ workers across the U.S. have called upon Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of “sex,” to take their employers to court.

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Check out where it is not illegal to fire GLBT people.... http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/non_discrimination_laws

[dsc]

1. I am a gay teacher in NC (though I teach math which is a major shortage area)

Not only do I not have career status now, I can't get it ever. I am one homophobic admin from the unemployment line.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Yup! NC can be really bad.

I worked there too. I posted the story, which, as I suspected would go unnoticed, because too many people are ignorant about GLBT issues and are only "on our side" when it is politically expedient or they need to fell good about themselves. Sadly, even GLBT people are ignorant of the homophobia and heterosexism which exists out there, much led the actual legal threats we face.