The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that gay and transgender workers are included, and thus protected, by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Medical ethicist Art Caplan spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about this ruling, which many are calling a victory for LGBTQ rights.
"The Obama administration under Obamacare had rolled out protections for transgender and gay people, including that they get appropriate care according to the gender that they identified with," Caplan said. "Trump has been fighting that and trying to roll that back, but now we have this decision that just came out from the Supreme Court.
Caplan said he was shocked that the court, having a conservative majority, ruled in this way, but that he's grateful they did so. "
They went away from biology and said you should go with the way the person self-identifies in terms of assigning them to a particular sex," he said. "There's nothing in that decision that will directly stop the Trump administration from trying to roll back protections, but they're going to now have to contend with this Supreme Court decision recognizing that sex is partly a matter of choice and identification, not just pure biology."
Art Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
