The state Human Rights Commission on Friday agreed to apply a historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling to state law, clearing the way for the agency to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
The agency decided Friday that it will start taking complaints of sexual discrimination against the LGBTQ community following a Supreme Court ruling that found that federal civil rights law protected someone from being fired because of their sexual orientation.
The commission sent out an email to lawmakers Friday afternoon notifying them of their decision, an action that already has drawn a sharp rebuke from one conservative group calling it a “power grab.”
State law now protects someone from discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodation because of race, religion, color, sex, disability and age. Until now, it had not been applied to sexual orientation or gender identity.
“This is really a significant decision on their part,” said Democratic state Rep. John Carmichael.
“What the commission did today will make sure that Kansas businesses and citizens are subject to the same set of rules under federal law that they are under state law,” he said.
“Not only will this afford LGBT Kansans the opportunity to bring complaints of employment discrimination to the Human Rights Commission, but it also will allow all businesses to follow one set of rules rather than a patchwork of conflicting decisions and interpretations,” he said.
Equality Kansas has been working to build protections against discrimination for the LGBTQ community into state law for 14 years.
While it has not been successful at the state level, it has gotten about 20 cities across the state to add protections for sexual orientation into their local ordinances.
“This is certainly a day to celebrate,” said Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas. “We’ve been trying to do this with the Legislature since 2006.
“Today’s decision by the Kansas Human Rights Commission means that LGBT Kansans are immediately going to be protected from further discriminatory practices based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“It’s going to be much harder to fire somebody for being gay. It’s going to be much harder to evict somebody for being lesbian and it’s going to be much harder to deny service to somebody who’s transgender.”
The Family Policy Alliance criticized the Human Rights Commission’s decision as a “power grab,” saying it went well beyond the scope of the Supreme Court decision.
The commission’s decision expands the court opinion well beyond its bounds to apply it to Kansas state law and to situations outside of an employment context, said Brittany Jones, advocacy director for the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas.
“You’ve shown contempt for Kansans, for their duly elected representatives, and for the law itself,” Jones said in a statement. “A power grab by an unelected administrative agency harms all Kansans.
“No one signed up to live under a dictatorship in the Sunflower state. Kansans retain the power to elect representatives who write law and are held accountable for the laws they make,” she said.
Jones said the alliance will “work with Kansans every step of the way to take back the power you attempted to steal today.”
The Supreme Court case combined three cases into one, each addressing an instance where a business fired a long-time employee for being gay or transgender.
In one case, a county in Georgia fired an employee for conduct “unbecoming” shortly after he began participating in a gay recreational softball league.
In another, a New York skydiving instructor was fired after mentioning his sexual orientation.
And in a third, a funeral home was sued for violating federal law law for firing a transgender employee.
