SDNY Holds Sexual Orientation Claim is Protected Under Title VII

Philpott v. New York, ___F. Supp. 2d___,2017 US Dist. Lexis 6751 (SDNY 2017), is an important. decision. The court holds that sexual orientation discrimination is protected under Title VII. As the court explained:

The fact that plaintiff has framed his complaint in terms of sexual orientation discrimination and not gender stereotyping discrimination is immaterial. I decline to embrace an "illogical" and artificial [*7] distinction between gender stereotyping discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination, and in so doing, I join several other courts throughout the country. See Videckis v. Pepperdine Univ., 150 F.Supp.3d 1151, 1159 (C.D. Cal. 2015) (collecting cases) ("Simply put, the line between sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination is 'difficult to draw' because that line does not exist, save as a lingering and faulty judicial construct."). For these reasons, and in light of the evolving state of the law on this question, I hold that plaintiff's sexual orientation discrimination claim is cognizable under Title VII.

Though this is certainly where the law is going, I believe that this very issue is pending before the 2d Circuit.