Sexual Orientation-Based Employment Discrimination: States' Experience with Statutory Prohibitions

Twelve states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws that prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2001 would make such discrimination a violation of federal law. Although state laws differ in some respects, they generally share several features with one another and with the act. For those states where the law has taken effect, relatively few formal complaints of employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation have been filed, either in absolute numbers or as a percentage of all employment discrimination complaints in the state. Moreover, the state statistics generally do not show any trend in the volume of employment discrimination cases based on sexual orientation.