Why LGBTQ rights hinge on the definition of "sex" | 2020 Election

UPDATE: In his first day in office, Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that adopts the latest Supreme Court ruling's more expansive inclusion of LGBTQ rights under sex discrimination protections. This reverses Trump's rulings.

Without federal legislation, the fight against LGBTQ discrimination has been waged in the courts and the White House.

Watch more 2020 US election explainers at http://vox.com/ElectionVideos.

The US Civil Rights Act of 1964 originally protected against discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, and religion. But in a failed political maneuver meant to make the bill so unpopular that it wouldn’t pass, the word “sex” was added as well. That addition protected women from being discriminated against at work, but it also set off a 50-year legal battle over whether the law also protects LGBTQ Americans.

The court has reached a decision in this battle, but the Trump White House has come to a different conclusion. And that means there are huge stakes for LGBTQ rights in the 2020 election.

This was the eighth in our series of 2020 election explainers, all based on viewer suggestions. Watch the others, which cover the stakes of the election on:
1) Climate change:    • How America can leave fossil fuels be...  
2) Voting rights:    • What long voting lines in the US real...  
3) Reproductive health:    • How US abortion policy targets the po...  
4) Public schools:    • How US schools punish Black kids | 20...  
5) Police reform:    • How the next president could change p...  
6) America’s role in the world:    • How America could lose its allies | 2...  
7) Transportation:    • Why American public transit is so bad...  
8) LGBTQ rights:    • Why LGBTQ rights hinge on the definit...  
9) The eviction crisis:    • Millions of Americans can't pay rent ...  

Read more of Vox’s coverage of the impact of the election on LGBTQ rights: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...

And the Bostock v. Clayton County ruling: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/15/2129151...

For coverage of the Equality Act, currently before the Senate: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...

For related coverage from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-s...

And from Time: https://time.com/5660956/trump-admini...

Here is the map of non-discrimination laws by state: https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps...

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