• Federal: Legal protection afforded to the LGBT community dates back to President Clinton’s 1998 executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in the civilian workforce.
• States: Employment discrimination laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity vary widely by state. There is very little statutory, common law, and case law establishing discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation as a legal wrong. Below are the states with and without employment-discrimination laws that protect all workers from practices such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, and harassment.
Full protections (17)
Prohibit employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation:
-California
-Colorado
-Connecticut
-District of Columbia
-Hawaii
-Illinois
-Iowa
-Maine
-Massachusetts
-Minnesota
-Nevada
-New Jersey
-New Mexico
-Oregon
-Rhode Island
-Vermont
-Washington
Some protections (5)
Prohibit employment discrimination based only on sexual orientation:
-Delaware
-Maryland
-New Hampshire
-New York
-Wisconsin
No protections (29)
No legal protection against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity:
-Alabama
-Alaska
-Arizona
-Arkansas
-Florida
-Georgia
-Idaho
-Indiana
-Kansas
-Kentucky
-Louisiana
-Michigan
-Mississippi
-Missouri
-Montana
-Nebraska
-North Carolina
-North Dakota
-Ohio
-Oklahoma
-Pennsylvania
-South Carolina
-South Dakota
-Tennessee
-Texas
-Utah
-Virginia
-West Virginia
-Wyoming
