Miami LGBTQ activists say ruling banning firing of gay or trans workers is long overdue
Pauline Green was on a Zoom call with fellow LGBTQ activists when all their phones started dinging. When she read the notification, she realized the news will change the future of the community she and her team serve.
The U.S. Supreme Court had just ruled, in a 6-3 decision Monday morning, that employers may not fire workers because they are gay or transgender.
Green is the executive director of the Alliance for GLBTQ Youth, a social services organization that advocates for youth legal rights and provides mental health resources in Miami-Dade County.
“In this moment of great challenge in our nation, to have this moment is hope and a reminder of what we’re fighting for every day, which is for the rights of young people to live in their full, true, authentic selves,” Green said.
She said the high school students whom they help can now graduate and know that they have basic civil rights protections in the next step of their lives. Green is hopeful that the Florida Legislature will follow with comprehensive LGBTQ protections, although the Legislature has not passed legislation regarding equal rights for LGBTQ Floridians, including in employment matters.
The Supreme Court decision doesn’t do away with all issues that affect LGBTQ employment, Green said. In the context of the national movement against systemic racism, Green said black transgender people experience unemployment four times that of the general population.
Until statistics like those are fixed, activism and advocacy can’t end, she said.
“We have to understand that all of our oppression is linked together,” Green said. “Our liberation is bound up together. None of us are free until we’re all free.”
Jor-El Garcia, Wynwood Pride co-founder and director, said several transgender people affiliated with his festival have struggled to keep jobs because of transphobic employers.
Garcia said he’s happy about the ruling, but the community can’t afford more judges who are against civil rights and equality.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said. “There’s still three Supreme Court [justices] that are actively voting against the rights of LGBTQ people.”
Bianca Moya has walked into interviews knowing that she is qualified for the job. She’s made it to the very last step in the application process — but when the employer finds out she’s transgender, she’s rejected.
Moya, 25, who is a U.S. Army veteran, said the Supreme Court decision validates not only her qualifications, but her life.
“It feels like you are finally part of what equality is,” Moya said. “It finally feels like someone is hearing you. It finally feels like your life is being valued.”
Moya, a Miami Beach resident, said she has an older transgender friend who said she is happy to be alive to witness the change.
Erica Jayne Friedman, Florida International University LGBTQA Initiatives associate director, said she approached the decision with cautious celebration.
“We need something to celebrate right now,” she said. “It’s important that we pause and take this moment to reflect and be happy about this monumental decision.”
The “cautious” part comes because the Supreme Court decision follows the Trump administration finalizing a rule Friday that would remove discrimination protections for LGBTQ people in healthcare and health insurance. The legal definition of sex discrimination was narrowed to describe ‘sex’ as determined by biology, which minimizes what healthcare providers can do for transgender people, Friedman said.
“This significant win does not stop the necessity to be continuing this work,” Friedman said.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 7:45 PM.