Judge Gorsuch and Gay Rights

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/opinion/judge-gorsuch-and-gay-rights.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Court Nominee Is Not Easy to Pigeonhole on Gay Rights, Friends Say” (news article, Feb. 12):

Judge Neil M. Gorsuch may be less caustic in his personal style than Justice Antonin Scalia, but his record shows legal views that would undermine basic civil rights for L.G.B.T. Americans.

For example, several appeals courts have held that federal law prohibits job bias against transgender workers. Judge Gorsuch joined a ruling that employers were free to fire a transgender woman by citing unsubstantiated “safety reasons” about her using workplace restrooms — a view several other courts have rejected.

And his “religious liberty” opinions are truly sweeping, suggesting that there is no limit to what a business can claim is a burden on its moral views — that it is all “a matter of faith we must respect.”

The signs are simply too strong that Judge Gorsuch’s America is one in which L.G.B.T. people can be refused service at restaurants, hotels and doctors’ offices, and employers could hang an “L.G.B.T. Need Not Apply” sign.

HARPER JEAN TOBIN

Director of Policy, National Center

for Transgender Equality

Washington