Former Library of Congress management analyst Peter TerVeer has legal standing under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 to sue after he was fired in 2012. He has alleged that he lost his job because he is gay. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected a motion from the U.S. Attorney for D.C. that TerVeer was not subjected to illegal sex discrimination from gender stereotyping. Other claims that the LC violated TerVeer’s constitutional rights and the LC regulations and policies were dismissed. TerVeer’s lawsuit claims that his supervisor, John Mech, repeated biblical verses condemning homosexuality before Mech fired him.
Title VII does not ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, but recent court rulings have included gender identity with race, religion, ethnicity, and gender. Prior federal court decisions have ruled that Title VII covers transgender people. If the judge rules in favor of TerVeer, the decision could be used as a precedent to give LGBT people equal employment rights, outlawing job discrimination.
