Your career should not be limited because of your sexual orientation or someone else’s assumptions about it. If bias affected your hiring, pay, promotion, workplace treatment, or termination, our Pittsburgh employment lawyers can help you understand your rights and possible next steps.
Sexual orientation discrimination occurs when an applicant or employee is treated less favorably because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, or perceived to have a particular sexual orientation.
It may involve being denied a job, promotion, raise, assignment, benefit, or professional opportunity. It can also include unequal discipline, reduced hours, harassment, or termination after an employer learns about an employee’s orientation or relationship.
You do not need to be open about your sexual orientation for discrimination to occur. Protection may also apply when an employer acts on an incorrect assumption about you.
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More than one employment law may apply to your situation.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act treats discrimination based on sexual orientation as a form of prohibited sex discrimination. These protections can apply to hiring, compensation, job assignments, promotions, benefits, discipline, and termination.
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission also recognizes sexual orientation discrimination under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. Pittsburgh’s local employment ordinance expressly protects workers from discrimination based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.
The appropriate legal path can depend on your employer’s size, where you work, what happened, and when it occurred.
Discrimination is not always accompanied by an openly biased statement. It may begin after you mention a spouse or partner, attend an LGBTQ+ event, correct a coworker’s assumption, or become the subject of workplace rumors.
Possible warning signs include sudden negative performance reviews, exclusion from meetings, unequal discipline, offensive jokes, pressure to hide your relationship, reduced responsibilities, denied advancement, or termination without a credible explanation.
Comparing how your employer treated similarly situated employees can also help identify whether sexual orientation influenced a workplace decision.
Workplace harassment does not have to involve sexual advances.
Sexual orientation harassment may include slurs, hostile jokes, invasive questions, ridicule about a same-sex relationship, threats to reveal someone’s orientation, or repeated comments about how an employee should dress or behave.
Federal guidance recognizes that harassment based on sexual orientation may violate employment discrimination law. Whether the conduct is legally actionable depends on its seriousness, frequency, context, and effect on the employee’s working conditions.
An employer’s response also matters. Ignoring a credible complaint or allowing the behavior to continue may strengthen an employee’s claim.
Employees may be protected when they report suspected discrimination, cooperate with an investigation, file an agency charge, or support a coworker who experienced unlawful treatment.
Retaliation can include termination, demotion, reduced hours, undesirable assignments, sudden discipline, exclusion from opportunities, or increased scrutiny after a complaint. Federal and Pittsburgh employment protections prohibit retaliation for opposing discrimination or participating in a related proceeding.
Report the retaliation to your attorney as soon as possible, even if your original discrimination complaint is still being reviewed.
Documents and a clear timeline can help establish what changed and why.
Preserve emails, text messages, workplace chat records, performance evaluations, schedules, disciplinary notices, employee policies, and written complaints. Keep a timeline identifying what happened, when it occurred, who was involved, and whether anyone witnessed it.
Information showing how other employees were treated may also be important. Preserve only records you are legally permitted to access or keep, and avoid altering or deleting relevant communications.
An employment lawyer can review the evidence, identify missing information, and determine whether the employer’s stated reason is consistent with its records and past practices.
Our attorneys can evaluate the circumstances surrounding the employment decision, review relevant communications and workplace records, and explain which federal, Pennsylvania, or Pittsburgh protections may apply.
Depending on the case, we may help prepare an administrative complaint, communicate with the employer, participate in settlement discussions, or pursue litigation. We can also evaluate related claims involving harassment, retaliation, unequal pay, or wrongful termination.
Because employment claims can have strict filing requirements, early legal advice can help protect your available options.
Yes. Federal employment law protects covered workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Pennsylvania also recognizes sexual orientation under its protections against sex discrimination, and Pittsburgh’s local ordinance expressly lists actual or perceived sexual orientation as a protected class.
Examples may include refusing to hire someone, denying a promotion, paying them less, assigning less desirable work, disciplining them more harshly, allowing targeted harassment, or firing them because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. Employment decisions based on stereotypes about an employee’s relationships or behavior may also be discriminatory.
Potentially, yes. Pittsburgh’s employment protections expressly cover actual or perceived sexual orientation. An employer may still violate the law when it takes adverse action based on an incorrect assumption about an applicant or employee.
They may. An isolated comment may not always establish unlawful harassment, but repeated slurs, humiliating jokes, threats, or hostile comments can become legally significant. The frequency, severity, context, effect on your work, and employer’s response will all matter.
No. Employers generally may not punish employees for making a good-faith discrimination complaint, filing a charge, participating in an investigation, or supporting another employee’s complaint. Report any demotion, schedule change, discipline, exclusion, or termination that follows your complaint.
Different deadlines may apply depending on whether the claim is filed under federal, Pennsylvania, or Pittsburgh law. The correct deadline can also depend on the employer and location of the discrimination. Because waiting may limit your options, speak with an employment lawyer promptly rather than relying on a general deadline.
