Although some states (including California) already have such protections for LGBTQ workers, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling is momentous natiuonally in provides such protections as part of the nation's key federal civil rights statute.

In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia (and two consolidated cases), Justice Neil Gorsuch -- nominated by President Donald Trump -- wrote the opinion of Court. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan joined.. Justices Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh dissented.

In introducing the opinion of the Court, Justice Gorsuch wrote:

Sometimes small gestures can have unexpected consequences. Major initiatives practically guarantee them. In our time, few pieces of federal legislation rank in significance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There, in Title VII, Congress outlawed discrimination in the workplace on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.

Justice Gorsuch who wrote the opinion succeeded another conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who years ago wrote that Title VII applied to sexual harassment actions.

[Scroll down for further.]

To voew the Supreme Court's full opinion, click here.

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