Question 1

Aiden became Arlene,a female,and soon thereafter had gender reassignment surgery.Prior to the surgery,Aiden was the lead salesperson at Exotic Auto Sales,a high-end car dealership.When Arlene reported to work after her surgery,she found that her hours had been cut and she was reassigned to a desk in the back of the showroom (a less desirable location).When she asked her supervisor about the changes,she was told that Exotic already had too many female salespersons.Arlene filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).Which of the following is a likely result?

Accepted Answer

Arlene can claim gender discrimination under Title VII because it covers gender identity discrimination. In the case of gender identity, the EEOC said there is discrimination either because an employee transitioned from one gender to the other or because an employer is uncomfortable with an employee not conforming to gender norms, and either should be actionable under Title VII as gender discrimination.

Question 2

Laura,a lesbian,is employed by Ohio Construction as a welder.Laura's co-workers did not know that she is a lesbian.She was frequently subjected to verbal abuse by her male co-workers who think that welding is a man's job.Laura is called inappropriate names,and is exposed to nude pictures of women on the walls.When she complains to her supervisor,she is told to ignore such behavior and focus on her work instead.Laura eventually quits her job.Which of the following holds true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Laura has a claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because she was subjected to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in the form of a hostile work environment constitutes sex discrimination. Sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the extent it occurs "because of" an employee's gender. Title VII permits employees claiming discrimination based on failing to fit a certain gender-based stereotype (usually effeminate men) to bring a claim based on gender stereotyping.

Question 3

Carrie is a lesbian who worked as a teacher and a part-time administrative coordinator at a public school for 14 years.Loren,a student,discovered that Carrie was a lesbian and informed her mother.Loren's mother raised the issue with the school's principal,after which Carrie was asked to stop teaching,though she was allowed to continue as an administrative coordinator in the same school.In this scenario,Carrie:

Accepted Answer

Carrie can file a suit based on the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution because she is a local government employee. In addition to rights that may be provided by state and local legislation, LGBT public employees adversely affected by an employment decision based on sexual orientation may, under appropriate circumstances, use state constitutions or the First, Fifth, or Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution as a basis for suit, as well as the constitutional right to privacy. This applies to federal, state, and local employees.

Question 4

Rob works at Corner Gym as the office secretary.His male co-workers are all trainers and fitness specialists.They refer to Rob as a "pretty man" because he does not lift weights,and they routinely call him "Roberta." They sometimes even go to the extent of imitating the way he walks and behaves and telling him that he acts like a girl.Rob is very disturbed because of the way he is treated at work.Which of the following holds true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Rob has a valid claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it prohibits same-gender sexual harassment. Title VII does not include a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, it prohibits sexual harassment of an employee by someone of the same gender.

Question 5

Roberto operates True Style,a clothing store that markets its products to lesbians.Jeff applies for a sales job at the store.He has extensive experience in the field of apparel retailing.Roberto rejects Jeff's application on the basis that the company is looking for qualified individuals who are lesbians to fill the position.Jeff files a complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.Which of the following holds true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Jeff may have a claim on the basis of sex or gender discrimination. Sometimes an employer discriminates against an employee who fits into more than one category, or perceived category, of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One category may be protected and the other not. Liability may still ensue.

Question 6

Jaques is a customer relationship executive at a bank.He enjoys wearing makeup.One day,he wears makeup to work,causing quite a stir.It is also a violation of bank's dress code.He disobeys a direct order from MaryAnne,his supervisor,to remove the makeup,whereupon he is terminated.In this scenario,Jaques' termination:

Accepted Answer

Jaques' termination is not actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Employers are able to have workplace dress codes as long as they do not violate Title VII. There is nothing in Title VII to prevent an employer from prohibiting men from wearing makeup in the workplace.

Question 7

Roberts Brothers terminates Anwar,a homosexual employee of Middle-Eastern descent.Anwar believes that his termination was unlawful.Which of the following is true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Anwar may have a claim for relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of his Middle-Eastern ethnicity. Sometimes an employer discriminates against an employee who fits into more than one category, or perceived category, of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One category may be protected and the other not. Liability may still ensue.

Question 8

A person is considered a transgender:

Accepted Answer

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the term transgender encompasses cross-dressers, intersexed people (formerly called hermaphrodites, or those born with both sex organs), transsexuals, and people who live substantial portions of their lives as other than their birth gender. Within the transgender community are those who may have surgery to change their gender, or those who cannot afford such surgery or for other reasons may not wish to have surgery, but they still feel like the gender opposite their outward appearance and they wish to present that to the world.

Question 9

Lucas is a waiter at The Foodie Club.He is also studying fashion design at a local college.The other waiters ridicule his chosen field of study,saying that "real men don't use sewing machines." They call him a punk and keep targeting all their jokes at him.They even attempted to pull his shirt off once.This type of verbal and physical abuse takes place on a regular basis and has caused him a lot of duress.In this scenario,Lucas:

Accepted Answer

Lucas has a claim for same-gender sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sexual harassment of an employee by someone of the same gender is prohibited under Title VII unless it can be shown that it was actually based on sexual orientation.

Question 10

An office has a no tolerance sexual harassment policy that includes inclusivity of employees who identify as LGBT.Which of the following would most likely NOT violate the policy?

Accepted Answer

Some of the activity presents a problem no matter who the employee is. An employer should not tolerate from any employee inappropriate workplace behavior such as improperly propositioning other employees. A distinction also should be made between status or orientation as LGBT, on the one hand, and, on the other, activity that may be inappropriate. Basing decisions and policies on an employee's actions is more defensible than basing them on his or her LGBT status or orientation. But even then the action should not be singled out solely based on the employee's orientation.

Question 11

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not include a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,but it does protect homosexuals if the employment action:

Accepted Answer

Sometimes an employer terminates an employee who fits into more than one category, or perceived category, of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One category may be protected and the other not. Liability may still ensue. For instance, if an employer terminates a black (protected) female (protected) after the employer finds that she is a lesbian (not protected), the employee is not able to use her status as a lesbian as the basis for a Title VII claim. However, if the employee can show that white lesbians were not terminated, this would be discrimination based on her race and would be actionable.

Question 12

Tom is a transgender,and he is actively transitioning.He informed his supervisor that he will start to live and dress as a woman after his gender reassignment surgery.His supervisor calls Tom deviant and fires him.Which of the following holds true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) included gender identity as part of gender discrimination under Title VII in 2012. In the EEOC's view, because Title VII is a remedial law, it needed to be broadly construed to strike at the entire spectrum of ways in which discrimination is manifested.

Question 13

Qiang,an Asian employee working at Rapid Fire Inc.,is terminated on the grounds that he is homosexual.He wants to file a discrimination claim against his employer.Qiang may have a valid claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if he can show that:

Accepted Answer

Qiang may have a valid claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if he can show that his employer did not terminate homosexual employees from other races.This may evidence discrimination based on race, which is actionable. Sometimes an employer terminates an employee who fits into more than one category, or perceived category, of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One category may be protected and the other not. Liability may ensue because of the protected category rather than the more obvious or dominant one.

Question 14

The legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 corrected a number of benefit inequities for LGBT employees,including:

Accepted Answer

Before marriage equality was the law, bereavement leave routinely granted to an employee to deal with the death of a loved one was often not provided to an LGBT employee when his or her life partner died, even though the couple may have been together for 30 years or more. Sick leave routinely granted and, in many places, allowed to be gifted to other employees in need was often not given when the employee was LGBT and the family was the employee's life partner. (See Exhibit 10.9, "Workplace LGBT Employees.") The up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to deal with an employee's adoption or birth of children, medical issues of the employee, the employee's spouse or children under the Family Medical Leave Act discussed in Chapter 16, was originally not available to gay and lesbian families.

Question 15

Sexual orientation is different from gender identity in that:

Accepted Answer

Gender identity involves how an individual identifies with gender. It encompasses several different manifestations, including sexual reassignment surgery and its stages, or dressing or acting in ways consistent with a gender other than the employee's birth gender transgender. This is quite different from the issue of sexual orientation. Gays and lesbians do not feel that their body and mind are at odds. They simply have an affinity for their same gender. By the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decision, gender identity is considered a type of gender for workplace discrimination purposes.

Question 16

Eric is a public employee.He is subjected to discrimination at work after a few co-workers learn that he is gay.If he files a sexual orientation discrimination claim,it could be based on:

Accepted Answer

In addition to rights that may be provided by state and local legislation, LGBT public employees adversely affected by an employment decision based on sexual orientation may, under appropriate circumstances, use state constitutions or the First, Fifth, or Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution as a basis for suit, as well as the constitutional right to privacy. It appears that the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibits a state government or agency from engaging in intentional discrimination-even on the basis of sexual orientation-absent some rational basis for so doing.

Question 17

All of the following are considered prohibited discrimination under Title VII except:

Accepted Answer

Under the Oncale decision, the Court preserved Title VII's exclusion of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation by holding that the sexual harassment of an employee by someone of the same gender is prohibited unless it can be shown that it was actually based on sexual orientation. That is, if a female employee can show that a female harassed her by calling her negative names, undermining her work productivity, spreading lies about her, or negatively commenting on her personality, actions, friends, speech, or clothing, as it relates to gender, and so on, then she can bring a claim under Title VII. If, however, the harassee is a lesbian and the harassment is in the form of something such as constantly calling her a lesbian, "dyke," or other derogatory terms related to her orientation; directing teasing, joking, and comments on homosexuality toward her; or persistently asking for dates or making sexual comments, based strictly on her status as a lesbian, then the harassee would not have a cause of action under Title VII, based on Oncale.

Question 18

Ross,a homosexual male,refuses to award Martin,a heterosexual,a well-deserved promotion at work unless Martin agrees to get physically intimate with him.Martin refuses and is not promoted.Martin brings a claim of sexual harassment against Ross on the grounds that Martin conditioned the promotion of the men in his department on the granting of sexual favors but did not similarly condition the promotion of the women in his department.Which of the following will hold true in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Martin can proceed with a claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 based on same-gender sexual harassment but not with a claim based on sexual orientation. Sexual harassment of an employee by someone of the same gender is prohibited under Title VII unless it can be shown that it was actually based on sexual orientation.

Question 19

Paul is being subjected to severe,pervasive,and unwelcome sexually harassing behavior from his supervisor,Greg.Can Paul bring a suit against Greg for sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

Accepted Answer

Paul can bring a suit against Greg for sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because Title VII prohibits same-gender sexual harassment. Sexual harassment of an employee by someone of the same gender is prohibited under Title VII unless it can be shown that it was actually based on sexual orientation.

Question 20

Which of the following is true of transgender employees?

Accepted Answer

While the term transgender has traditionally been used for those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery, a change in the use of the term has come with a growing awareness of the issues of transgender individuals and a greater sense of themselves than historically. It is now often used more loosely to include those who may not yet have had surgery but are living as the opposite gender. There are those within the transgender community who may have had surgery to change their gender, or those who cannot afford such surgery or for other reasons may not wish to have surgery, but they still feel like the gender opposite their outward appearance and they wish to present that to the world. They may have had some surgery and not other surgery. Whether they have or have not is totally irrelevant to their ability to do their job, and it is inappropriate to ask. Transgender employees simply want to be treated as the gender they feel themselves to be and represent themselves as.

Quiz 10: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination