The Latest on a federal appeals court in Chicago ruling the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination : An Indiana teacher who's the plaintiff in the case in which a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination says she filed her lawsuit because she felt she was being "bullied." The 8-3 decision by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which overturned a three-judge panel's ruling, represents another step in the effort by gay rights groups to extend their 2015 nationwide victory on same-sex marriage to other areas, including employment. The ruling on behalf of Kimberly Hively, an instructor at Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend, Ind., fired because she is lesbian, makes the 7th Circuit the highest federal court to protect LGBT people under the 1964 Civil Rights Act's prohibition against sex discrimination. The 7th Circuit is considered relatively conservative and five of the eight judges in the majority were appointed by Republican presidents, making the finding all the more notable. In its decision to reinstate Hively’s 2014 lawsuit, which was thrown out at the local level in Indiana, the Court of Appeals ruled that protections against sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people from job discrimination based on their sexual orientation. “We conclude today that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination.”

To reach its conclusion, the court examined 20 years of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court on issues related to gay rights, including the high court’s 2015 ruling that same-sex couples have a right to marry, Wood wrote.
The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago rules (8-3) that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination.