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Hours after his inauguration, President Joe Biden issued an executive order expanding federal nondiscrimination standards for LGBTQ people that could further protect workers at Syracuse University. 

The order affirms that people of LGBTQ identities are protected from employment discrimination based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The order builds a 2020 Supreme Court decision, instructing all federal agencies to interpret sex discrimination policies to also cover discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. 

“(Biden’s executive order) brings our country one step closer to a place where all of us, including LGBTQ people, can live with dignity and respect,” said Angela Dallara, vice president of external communications at Freedom for All Americans, a bipartisan organization that advocates for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections. 

SU, which receives federal funding for some of its research programs, has not announced if it has plans to update any policies in response to the order. The university already has a sexual harassment, abuse and assault prevention policy that includes harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression and identity.

The university has also implemented other policies related to LGBTQ people in recent years, said PJ DiPietro, director of graduate studies in SU’s department of women’s and gender studies.

Seeing SU develop its policies has been encouraging, they said. As a university senator, DiPietro has seen the growth of initiatives like the Transgender Rights Toolkit, which focuses on human resources work such as hiring and retaining faculty and offering trans-inclusive health care benefits.

Though the toolkit is not officially integrated into the practices of the Office of Human Resources, it is a step in the right direction, DiPietro said. 

“When I arrived at the university in 2015, there was no mention of transgender inclusion or transgender health care benefits during the orientation that all faculty receive,” they said. “The university will become more inclusive by adopting this and other practices.”

Universities will have little choice but to adopt the new precedent, said Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The order means that people cannot be fired, denied health care or excluded from housing because of their LGBTQ identity.

The Biden administration has issued several executive orders reinstate or reimagine policies reversed during President Donald Trump’s administration, such as protecting transgender service members and recruits.

With Democratic control in the U.S. House of Represenatitives, the Senate and the White House, now is the time to guarantee protections for discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, Minter said. The fact that executive orders can be reversed is a reason for caution, he said. 

The Supreme Court’s ruling that civil rights laws protect LGBTQ people will make it difficult for future administrations to turn back the clock, though. 

“That precedent creates a lot of security and clarity,” Minter said. “That said, the most security would come from enacting federal legislation that expressly adds these protections to the text of anti-discrimination laws.”

Dallara said that eventually, governments –– whether local, state or federal –– will need to look beyond the case and executive order to include public accommodations. She hopes Congress will update federal law to include explicit, complete nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people. 

DiPietro said it’s also up to individual institutions, like SU, to be more inclusive of people of LGBTQ identities, even if doing so isn’t enshrined in law. 

Programs such as Women’s and Gender Studies and LGBT Studies deserve more attention and funding from institutions, they said. On a campus of about 22,000 students, there is just one course entirely focused on transgender studies, DiPietro said. 

“The university would greatly benefit from expanding the resources available to the academic units that tirelessly, and often with few resources, create scholarship that serves the trans populations,” DiPietro said.  

Published on February 10, 2021 at 10:28 pm

gfpagano@syr.edu