The other day, the Supreme Court ruled that under Title VII, LGBTQ rights are protected. They cannot be discriminated against because of their sex. When I first heard the news, I assumed it was a 5-4 decision and believed (rightly) that it was John Roberts who had come down on the side of the progressive justices. I soon discovered that it was a 6-3 decision. I cannot remember the last time a truly controversial case before the Supreme Court and the vote not being as narrow as possible. I was delighted. It was just a bonus for me that it was a Trump appointee, Neil Gorsuch, that joined Roberts and the liberals. It gives me hope, because I think even most conservatives understand that a Gorsuch was not being an “activist” justice. For him, it came down to law.

This news is so excellent. I have a gay friend who lost her job a long time ago, simply because her boss found out she was gay. This is wrong. There is no legal standing for denying someone’s right to work, to keep a roof over their head, to survive, based on any sort of legal idea.

However, this battle is not over. It is tied into what will almost certainly be efforts to undermine it using every loophole that can be discovered. One need look no further than the Obergefell or Roe v Wade decisions to see that (for more on Roe, check out my blogpost on the new Tennessee state law regarding abortion). These two decisions are judicially protected, but neither are federal law. Both are semi protected under state law, but those are not universal, and a couple married under one state’s laws can see their marriage and the rights that come with it (from adopting to having their partner make medical decisions for them) not being recognized in another. We’ve seen gay couples fight to get married in the state of their choice AND fight to have that marriage legally recognized wherever they go. As for women’s rights, we have seen access to basic women’s healthcare restricted at every turn. What began as a movement to restrict rights and access to abortion turned into a Christians rights movement to deny birth control (often used for medical reasons aside from its original use), or other forms of medical needs.

The Zarda case (Zarda vs Altitude Express is the full name of the case SCOTUS just made the decision on), will be no different. The undermining will probably not take long and will probably involve Christian rights groups suing over a case, claiming it doesn’t go against the decision, even while it undermines it.

This decision was progress. But our guard cannot be let down.