Imagine having a job that you love,
and a job that you're good at,
and you have great success at,
and then all of a sudden that being
gone.
My performance should be based on my
work performance, not who
I am, how I identify,
or who I love.
I'm fired for being gay.
I not only lost my source of income,
but I also lost my medical insurance
at the time, and I was recovering
from prostate cancer.
So, I was devastated.
It took me awhile to find a job.
Fortunately, I did find this
position at a local hospital
and I'm no longer working with
children, but I am making a
difference in the lives of the
adults.
I'm standing up not only for
myself but for all of us.
We're going to carry this
effort to Washington and
make sure that we all have equal
rights.
We were responsible for bringing in
volunteers that would, after
training, be able to represent
child and abuse victims that come
through the juvenile court system.
I decided January of 2013
to join a gay recreational softball
league.
Within months of joining the league,
I began having negative comments
about my sexual orientation.
Our argument, and our argument
continues to be that
when an employer
takes an employee's
sexual orientation into account
in making an employment decision,
that employer has acted
on the basis of sex, and therefore
has violated Title VII.
The basic question in this case
is whether Title VII's prohibition
on discrimination on the basis of
sex also includes discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
And people like Mr. Bostock says
that it must because sexual
orientation discrimination is
inextricably bound up with questions
of sex.
For LGBTQ individuals
in those states without state
level protections, and for those who
are employed by the federal
government, Title VII provides
these protections that don't exist
anywhere else.
If Mr. Bostock wins that means
those workers win.
They'll enjoy these continuing
protections.
But if Mr. Bostock loses, that means
there will be no Title VII
protection, and therefore no sexual
orientation discrimination
protections in those states that
currently don't have it.
Everyone has the right to go
to work, pursue a living,
and be judged on the merits of
their performance, not who they are
or who they love.
And to be in a situation where in
too many parts of the country one
can legally wed one's
partner on Sunday and be fired
for it on Monday underscores
the very fact that we have
to have a uniform national
federal protection for gay and
lesbian employees.
I didn't ask for this, but I'm
willing to be the one to stand up so
that nobody else has to go through
the experience that I've gone
through during the last six years.
I am proud of who I am, I'm
proud of the man I've become,
and I'm very proud of the hard work
and success that I gave Clayton
County.
And more importantly, how that
impacted all the children
in that community, all
of those children in state care and
custody, all of those children in
relative care, all of those children
in custody dispute hearings,
and nobody is going to take that
away from me, especially Clayton
County.