Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin or sex. Since 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken the position that Title VII prohibits sexual orientation discrimination. However, until this week, courts in each of the 11 federal circuits had rejected this position, ruling that Title VII does not protect employees against sexual orientation discrimination. Instead, the courts held that for a gay or lesbian employee to state a valid claim for discrimination under Title VII, the claim would need to be based on failure of the employee to live up to a sexual stereotype, not on the employee’s sexual orientation itself. More