SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Palm Center director Aaron Belkin made the following statement in response to today’s ruling by the Supreme Court affirming that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act:

“The Supreme Court today rejected the Trump administration’s plea that American employers be allowed to discriminate against LGBTQ workers. But the landmark ruling does not apply to discrimination against transgender Americans by the military, the nation’s largest employer. Today’s ruling makes the military, so often a successful leader in ending discrimination in American life, an outlier amidst a national consensus that arbitrary discrimination is harmful and wrong. With transgender workers protected by federal law in all other sectors, the military’s transgender ban is now even harder to defend.”