The Supreme Court affirmed, in a 6–3 ruling, that the prohibition on sex discrimination codified in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes protection for sexual orientation and gender identity.
When I first saw the headline reporting this, I felt an exhale emerge from deep within my soul. And then I cried.
For the record, I am a cis-gendered, heterosexual female.
On the surface, this ruling doesn’t impact my life. And yet it greatly impacts my life.
First, it impacts my life because I have many friends in the LGBTQ community who at last can feel secure that they are protected from sex discrimination the way I am. They cannot get fired for who they are or who they love.
We are all connected. Their pain has been my pain.
Second, it impacts my life because I believe that our workplaces and communities and social spheres are enriched when each of us can bring our full selves to what we do; when we don’t need to hide any parts of ourselves in fear or shame.
Diversity and inclusion are not tactics we employ only for people who have traditionally been marginalized. Any ecosystem benefits from diversity, especially the human ecosystem. We all benefit from this.
Third, it impacts my life because it corrects a grave injustice that has been carried out for too long. Whether we see it or not, that injustice impacts all of us.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Freedom is not an individual sport that is won at the expense of others. It is a collective result that emerges when we treat every human being as such.
Unless all of us are free from discrimination, none of us are free, because the tide can turn against the “in” group at any time.
This was a landmark ruling — a “watershed” moment — whose time was long overdue and yet whose timing was perfect.
In this climate we are in now, this ruling offers a beacon of hope.
It reinforces that, ultimately, the long arc of time does bend toward justice. What is right and true will ultimately prevail.
The needle may move slowly, but it moves — as long as we remain persistent in our efforts.