Many people in the LGBT community have been watching the case in Rowan County, Kentucky. Following the Supreme Court’s order that all same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional, states began issuing marriage licenses to all same-sex couples. However, Kim Davis, county clerk for Rowan County, refused. After all was said and done, she was found to be in contempt of court for continuing to refuse to issue marriage licenses to anyone, even after a federal judge ordered her to. Now Davis is in jail and her office has begun issuing licenses. This has, many hope, set the precedent for future challenges.
Precedent is one of the things that the LGBT community has come to rely on in many of their court battles or questions of legality. That’s because the court itself places a lot of emphasis on precedent. The question of precedent was brought up over and over during cases involving same-sex marriage, specifically the precedent that interracial marriage bans had been overturned in Loving v. Virginia in 1967. The Supreme Court even referenced this case.
While there was an easy precedent case in same-sex marriage, unfortunately finding a precedent for other issues can be tricky. For example, in many states it is legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation. While some recent statements made by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suggests that federal employers cannot discriminate based on orientation, many private employers are still free to fire people at will. This at-will employment means that employees can often be fired for any reason whatsoever, and some employers do not hesitate to use this power. Unfortunately, because they are private employers, there’s not much that can be done, and there is really no precedent to cite.
Housing discrimination is much the same, as many gay and lesbian realtors will tell you. There’s no precedent stating that someone has to rent or sell you a home just because you’re qualified for a mortgage or have the money. People are free to reject your offer if they want. The Fair Housing Act does not include sexual orientation, and even if it did, it’s very hard to prove that someone is discriminating against you unless you have documents or witnesses. In fact, very few housing discrimination claims are even filed every year because it’s difficult to prove.
However, some LGBT discrimination may fall under things such as disability (those with HIV/AIDS, for example) or under the basis of sex. Some precedents have been set here, and if you feel like you’ve been discriminated against, you should do some research to see if you have a case.