LGBTIQ / LGBTQIA+ legal topics involve rights related to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, including protections against discrimination, access to healthcare, family recognition, and asylum protections.
The Dignity for All Students Act requires New York State public elementary and secondary schools to provide an educational environment free from harassment, bullying, and discrimination. The law protects students on the basis of race, color, weight, national origin, ethnicity, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex.
The plaintiff, a British national, applied for a Hong Kong visa as a dependent of her same-sex partner, who was in Hong Kong on a work visa. The plaintiff and her partner had entered into a civil partnership in England. The Director of Immigration rejected the plaintiff’s application on the grounds that the term “spouse” in the spousal dependent visa policy was limited to the concept of marriage as defined under Hong Kong law, recognizing only the union of a man and a woman.
The Discrimination Act (“DA”) promotes equality regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or any other identity by defining and prohibiting discrimination and sexual harassment. The DA provides anti-discrimination laws which state that as long as an individual is capable of performing the relevant task, or eligible to receive services, he or she may not be discriminated against based on any identity factors.
In the ECHR Case Drelon v. France, European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled on the case of a blood donor in France who refused to answer questions about his sex life, resulting in his exclusion from donation on the grounds of a factor of ineligibility associated with homosexuality. The ECHR ruled that the collection and storage of personal data by the Établissement Français du Sang, based on speculation and lacking any proven factual basis, was a violation of the right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The applicant was a gay man from Northern Ireland. He filed a complaint with the European Commission on Human Rights claiming that (a) the existence, in the criminal law in force in Northern Ireland, of various offences capable of relating to male homosexual conduct and the investigation into his activities constituted an unjustified interference with his right to respect for his private life, in breach of Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention; (b) he had suffered discrimination, within the meaning of Article 14 of the Convention, on grounds of sex, sexuality, and residence.
The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act declares that the opportunity to obtain employment, housing, education, and the full use of public accommodations is a civil right. The Act prohibits discrimination in these areas based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, height, weight, familial status, or marital status. It further provides protections against retaliation for opposing discriminatory practices or participating in related proceedings.
In the case Emilee Carpenter LLC v. James, a professional photographer, Emilee Carpenter, challenged New York’s public-accommodations statutes (under the Human Rights Law and Civil Rights Law) after indicating she would decline to provide wedding-photography services for same-sex couples due to her religious and personal beliefs about marriage.
The Employment Equality Act pertains to discrimination in the employment context.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits covered employers from discriminating against applicants, as well as current and former employees, based on race, gender, color, religion, or national origin. In Bostock v. Clayton County, the court interpreted Title VII’s prohibition on gender discrimination in the workplace as including a prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
