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Although we have legislation that, at least in theory, protects employees from discrimination, discrimination still occurs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in all areas of employment on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. This includes sexual harassment, a form of discrimination which involves "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment" (www.eeoc.gov). However, it does not specifically protect against other forms of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
There is an executive order specifically outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal government, but there are no federal laws that prohibit this type of discrimination in private employment. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in both private and public jobs. These states are: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. Seven states have laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in public employment but do not address the private sector. They are: Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington (www.nolo.com). So at best we can say that there is limited protection against sexual orientation discrimination.
The Effects of Discrimination
Sexual orientation discrimination covers a wide range from implicit events ranging from repeated comments and questions relating to marital status to explicit malicious antigay jokes or bashings (Smith & Ingram, 2004; Waldo, 1999). It varies from merely a lack of inclusion to more explicit forms of discrimination or even hate-crimes. Even in its mildest, most subtle form, discrimination can be damaging to the...