Lippman, Semsker & Salb has decades of experience litigating on behalf of members of the LGBT community so that individuals may work free of discrimination based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Your protection from discrimination depends on where the discrimination took place. Our Firm has attorneys experienced in litigating GLBT discrimination cases in DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
The District of Columbia has long offered protections to the LGBT community. Employment decisions based on almost any factor other than merit has been outlawed, with sexual orientation and gender identity being specifically mentioned as prohibited bases for employment decisions. Similar protections are in place for housing and education discrimination. Same-sex marriage has long been lawful in the District and adoption is similarly unrestricted.
In Maryland, too, state law protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Gender identity is protected by ordinances in several counties, including Baltimore City, Baltimore, Montgomery, and Howard counties, but efforts to pass a state law protecting transgendered people has failed. Marriage and adoption are unrestricted.
Virginia state laws provide no protection against discrimination based upon sexual orientation or gender identity or presentation. Only in Arlington County (including, for example, the Ballston area) are you protected by a county ordinance against discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations based on sexual orientation. There are signs that things are beginning to change, however. In January 2014 Governor McAuliff, on the day he took office, issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination against state government workers based on sexual orientation. So too, Virginia bans same-sex marriage and prohibits adoptions by same-sex couples, but both of these bans are presently under attack in Virginia courts and may soon change.
And remember that if you are federal employee, a number of executive orders and regulations work together to provide protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
If you believe that you have suffered discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, please call on us.