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Ah, but gender (and by extension, sexual orientation according to SCOTUS) is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act. Political affiliation is not a prote
by danhak 6y ago
Ah, but gender (and by extension, sexual orientation according to SCOTUS) is a protected class under the Civil Rights Act. Political affiliation is not a protected class.
- frob 6y agoI belive you mean Bostock v Clayton Co, which was decided this summer and extended Title VII protections to LBGT individuals. Obergefell extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.
- danhak 6y agoYes, thank you. I edited my post.
- snowwrestler 6y agoAnd the reason for this is that we now believe that gender and sexual orientation are not subject to conscious thought but are “hard coded” into a person. Whereas political affiliation (and politically motivated acts of violence) are still thought to be choices that can be freely made or changed.
- danhak 6y agoI’m not sure this argument holds in general. For example, you could change your religion and it would still be illegal to discriminate on that basis.
- snowwrestler 6y agoI don’t think it holds in general for all civil rights, but I do think this change in mindset underpins the increased protection of gender and sexual orientation vs 20 or 30 years ago. Even the typical verbiage has changed, from sexual preference to orientation.
- triceratops 6y agoI think the argument holds for religion too. I can decide to not say offensive things in a store so as to not be kicked out. But I can't decide to change my faith to be allowed entry to the store, because faith doesn't work like that. You can't force religious belief. At most, I could pretend to change my professed religion. But my faith remains unchanged and unchangeable.
- vbezhenar 6y agoYou can change gender. And of course you can change sexual orientation, it's just preference.
- Spivak 6y agoLook I think you’ve got the spirit but in practice it’s not as simple as that. If transgender people could simply choose not to be their lives would be instantly markedly improved. Nobody signs up to be part of a class of people met with disgust, mockery, routine violence, sexual assault, job discrimination, losing their friends and families, crippling loneliness, and huge medical and therapy bills. They do it because they literally cannot live as their assigned gender.
- randyrand 6y ago"Nobody signs up to be part of a class of people met with disgust, mockery, routine violence, sexual assault, job discrimination, losing their friends and families, crippling loneliness" To me it sounds like you could just as well be describing conservatives.
- throwawaygulf 6y agoThis is one of the best comments I've read here LOL! They literally described what it's like to be a left coast conservative.
- armenarmen 6y ago> political affiliation (and politically motivated acts of violence) are still thought to be choices that can be freely made or changed. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038932/#:~:text=Almost%20forty%20years%20ago%2C%20evidence,be%20explained%20by%20genetic%20influences https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038932/#:~:tex....
- snowwrestler 6y agoI definitely agree that the growing body of knowledge about the brain and how personalities develop will be a huge challenge to our notions of free will and responsibility under the law.
- erikpukinskis 6y agoThere are some other examples of protected classes that don't fit this profile. Religion/creed for one. But also the speech of labor organizers in the workplace is protected, but being a labor organizer is not "hard coded".