Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Taking PRIDE in Equality

Juan_Suarez
Employee
Employee

Splash_780x480.jpg

 

In 2019, Southwest Airlines joined the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Business Coalition for the Equality Act and joined an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief that was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. The Equality Act was a proposed federal law that would provide the same basic protections to the LGBTQ community as are provided to other protected groups under federal law.

 

Yesterday, history was made when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that the Civil Rights Act (CRA) protects LGBTQ Employees from discrimination. Previously, Title VII of the CRA banned employment discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Now, the definition of sex includes gay, bisexual, and transgender workers. That means it's illegal for employers to fire workers on the basis of their LGBTQ status.

 

While this doesn’t change anything for Southwest since our current internal discrimination policy already included these protected categories, we are pleased that LGBTQ employees are protected under the law throughout the nation, no matter where in the U.S. they’re employed. 

 

Southwest is a People-centric Company built by love, with a 49-year history of living by the Golden Rule, treating others with respect, and embracing diversity. We were proud to earn a perfect score on the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year in 2019. 

 

I hope you’ll join us in celebrating this wonderful news!

 

Best,

Juan Suarez
Managing Director, Deputy General Counsel

1 Comment