While Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have a plan to enshrine additional protections for LGBTQ people, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have worked hard to undermine LGBTQ protections and weaken the LGBTQ business community, even amidst a pandemic that disproportionately impacts LGBTQ people.

As President Trump discusses his failed economic record, it’s important to remember that his administration has systematically fought to roll back employment non-discrimination protections despite the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision earlier this year.

Trump submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging justices to allow LGBTQ people to be fired for who they are or who they love

In 2019, the Trump administration’s Solicitor General submitted an amicus brief arguing to the Supreme Court that the federal employment non-discrimination law known as Title VII “does not bar discrimination because of sexual orientation.” The Supreme Court disagreed with Trump in its landmark Bostock decision, which makes it clear, once and for all, that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited under Title VII. This decision is incredibly impactful for the LGBTQ community and has implications on civil rights laws forbidding discrimination in education, health care, housing and many more other areas, but the Trump administration has continued its attempts to discriminate against LGBTQ depite the Bostock ruling.

The Trump-Pence administration has systematically rolled back employment non-discriminaton policies

• Trump’s Justice Department rolled back Obama-era non-discrimination protections: Trump’s Department of Justice upended previous DOJ interpretations of the Civil Rights Act that protected transgender and non-binary workers from employment discrimination, ceased enforcing non-discrimination protections, and took a hostile stance toward protections for LGBTQ workers in court.
• Issued rule to license discrimination: Trump’s Department of Labor issued a regulation that would allow federal contractors to claim a religious exemption to fire LGBTQ workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

For more on Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ workers, click here.