Such a decision would also expand the responsibilities of many in the HR community and perhaps create the need for “Title VII experts” in the legal world down the road.

The Case for ENDA

While many Americans have gotten accustomed to the acronym “LGBT” in conversations about civil and workplace rights, the “T” component was widely regarded as an outlier for a long time. Now, however, perhaps emboldened by the success of their gay and lesbian friends and colleagues in achieving national recognition in warp-speed time, the transgender community is taking steps toward establishing its own legal protections.

At the same time, legislation designed to protect American workers against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation (“actual or perceived”), known as the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), has been making its way through Congress since the early days of the Clinton Administration (the original version was proposed in 1994).

Language prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity was actually added to the act in the latter part of the Bush Administration (2007). The Bill was eventually passed by the Senate in 2013, but has been languishing in the House since then. President Obama has expressed his willingness to sign ENDA into law, but it seems unlikely with both houses of Congress now in Republican hands for the remainder of his term.

Many employment law experts see ENDA as the best hope to end workplace discrimination against all LGBT individuals, according to a recent Fortune article.

Baby Steps, Then Giant Ones

Battles to end discrimination in any aspect of our society are invariably works in progress and the workplace is no exception. American women have had the right to vote for less than 100 years. African-American soldiers fought valiantly side-by-side with their white comrades at least as far back as the Civil War, but the military wasn’t desegregated until after World War II.

President Clinton came into office in 1993 with a promise to end the ban on gays in the military. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” compromise he signed into law, however, actually encouraged discrimination against gay soldiers, contrary to Clinton’s wishes. That, along with the Defense of Marriage Act he also compromised on, was only repealed recently – and by a Supreme Court with a conservative plurality.

The point is, it takes time to change people’s thinking about equality. Many Americans were reluctant to talk about gay rights and protections until they discovered that their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even sons and daughters, had been quietly leading gay lives.

It’s likely that a similar phenomenon will eventually take place among transgender individuals, though perhaps to a lesser (if more visible) extent. Discrimination protections don’t always start in the workplace, but perhaps they should. They end up becoming part of our professional lives sooner or later. And, somehow, at the end of the day, it’s about treating everyone we work with equally. The EEOC lawsuits are a good reminder of that.