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Tag Archives: Pamela Kelley
No, Debbie, Title VII does NOT prohibit sexual orientation discrimination in employment. Hello?
Wishing doesn’t make it so: despite Anchorage Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander’s contention that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers sexual orientation discrimination, federal case law consistently shows that it does not. Here’s more proof, with a recent 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals case which found that an effeminate gay man in Pennsylvania (but not actually Emmett Honeycutt) laid off from his job had recourse under Title VII for discrimination based on gender role stereotyping, but not for sexual orientation. Continue reading
Kelley testimony 2: Oncale Supreme Court decision on workplace sexual harassment does not protect LGBTs from discrimination
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998) was offered by one speaker in July 21 Assembly testimony as proof that existing law already exists to protect LGBT people from unfair discrimination. But, as attorney and UAA professor Pamela Kelley writes, Oncale’s application is very narrow: to sexual harassment between members of the same sex (regardless of sexual orientation) in the workplace.
Kelley testimony 1: Contrary to prior Assembly testimony, existing law does not protect LGBT people from discrimination
Among the few arguments against proposed Anchorage ordinance AO 2009-64 that does not involve Christianist claims about the Bible is the claim that such an ordinance is unnecessary — that existing law already protects lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transfolk from unfair discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and financial practices. But this claim is not true, as attorney and UAA professor Pamela Kelley testified on July 21.