Kentucky residents who are part of the LGBTQ community have natural concerns that their personal lives can negatively impact their employment. While their rights are supposed to be protected under the law, it is unfortunately common for there to be attempts by those who discriminate against LGBTQ people to find ways to infringe on those rights. Recently, there are concerns regarding a new proposal that might implicitly allow employers to discriminate against those in the LGBTQ community. Although the new proposal is not yet the law, it is important for those who believe their sexual orientation/transgender rights are in jeopardy or have already been violated to understand what steps they can take next.
A Labor Department proposal by the Trump administration has sparked concern that LGBTQ people could be targeted by employers. It would allow religious organizations that contract with the federal government to consider religious tenets when making determinations on whom to hire and retain. Under this plan, a group or company that has a “religious purpose” and gets a federal contract could use this law. They will not be allowed to take part in discriminatory behaviors, but critics believe the law would leave significant room for them to do so.
The current law was implemented by the Obama administration. In it, federal contractors were barred from discriminating against workers due to their sexual orientation or because they were transgender. The number of employers that work for the government is vast with almost 25% of U.S. employees working for these companies. This comes on the heels of Supreme Court cases related to personal religious beliefs being decided in favor of the defendants who were accused of discriminatory behaviors.
Employment discrimination for any reason is problematic for employees. In the past, there were concerns that their sexual orientation, that they were transgender or considering moving forward with the necessary treatments for it would cause problems at work. This worry kept them from being true to themselves. In recent years, that discrimination has reduced. However, the new proposal could damage sexual orientation/transgender rights once again.
