Employment Nondiscrimination
In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in employment. As a result of this ruling, LGBTQ people across the country can continue to file complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and seek recourse for discrimination in the workplace through federal courts.
Note that some states also have explicit laws against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and these are included below. These state laws remain important so that LGBTQ people are protected against discrimination at every level of government, and because they are often passed alongside additional protections not yet enshrined in federal law, such as protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and public places. Some cities and counties also have such protections, and those are tracked here.
Note that Title VII applies only to employers with 15 or more employees. Additional protections may exist at the state or local level. Individuals who have experienced discrimination should contact Lambda Legal’s Help Desk or otherwise seek legal advice. This map is not intended as legal advice.
Recommended citation:
Movement Advancement Project. 2026. “Equality Maps: Employment Nondiscrimination Laws.” https://mapresearch.org/equality-map/employment-nondiscrimination/. Data as of June 12, 2026.
A June 2020 Supreme Court ruling affirmed that LGBTQ people across the country are protected by federal law against discrimination in the workplace. A growing number of states and localities also have such protections, and these state and local laws remain important so that LGBTQ people are protected against discrimination at every level of government. These state and local laws also often include protections against discrimination beyond employment, such as in housing and public places.
State employment nondiscrimination laws protect LGBTQ people from being unfairly fired, not hired, or discriminated against in the workplace by private employers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. This map shows state nondiscrimination laws that explicitly enumerate sexual orientation and/or gender identity as protected classes, as well as states that explicitly interpret existing sex protections to include sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Notes:
Nearly all states prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sex (with the exceptions of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi). The Supreme Court’s June 2020 decision in Bostock affirmed that sex-based discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. However, states with sex-based protections are only included in the above map if the state government or agency has explicitly affirmed they interpret the state’s ban on sex discrimination to also apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (as per the logic in the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2020 decision in Bostock). See the “State-by-State Statutes” document for more detail.
Missouri’s Supreme Court held in February 2019 that, under Missouri law, it is illegal for employers to discriminate based on sex stereotypes. While the ruling held that discrimination based on sexual orientation is not a form of sex stereotyping, the decision does affirm the right of LGBTQ Missourians to (like all Missourians) bring charges of employment discrimination based on sex stereotyping.
Individuals who have experienced discrimination should contact Lambda Legal’s Help Desk or otherwise seek legal advice. This map is not intended as legal advice.
Recommended citation:
Movement Advancement Project. 2026. “Equality Maps: Employment Nondiscrimination Laws.” https://mapresearch.org/equality-map/employment-nondiscrimination/#state. Data as of June 12, 2026.
Percent of Adult LGBTQ Population Covered by Laws
*Note: These percentages reflect estimates of the LGBTQ adult population living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Estimates of the LGBTQ adult population in the five inhabited U.S. territories are not available, and so cannot be reflected here.
In the absence of federal or state nondiscrimination protections, many municipalities have taken action to protect their LGBTQ community members from discrimination. These local nondiscrimination ordinances (NDOs) do so by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity in private employment, housing, and/or public accommodations.
This map shows the percent of each state’s population that is protected from private employment discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. This map also shows statewide employment nondiscrimination laws (dark green, no pin) and statewide laws prohibiting local ordinances (orange stripe). For more information about a state’s coverage, including whether there are fewer protections for gender identity than sexual orientation, please see the city and county tab, or the detailed information in each state’s profile by clicking on that state in the map below.
*Wisconsin‘s nondiscrimination law explicitly enumerates sexual orientation, but not gender identity. As a result, 100% of Wisconsin residents are protected from discrimination based on sexual orientation, but residents are only protected from discrimination based on gender identity if their local city or county has enacted such protections.
Recommended citation:
Movement Advancement Project. “Equality Maps: Local Nondiscrimination Ordinances.” https://mapresearch.org/map-sections/employment/ Accessed June 12, 2026.
Click here for a list of city and county ordinances by state.
This map shows state laws or policies that prohibit discrimination against state employees on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. As a result of a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, state employees can seek recourse for employment discrimination based sexual orientation and gender identity through the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal courts.
Movement Advancement Project. 2026. “Equality Maps: Employment Nondiscrimination Laws.” https://mapresearch.org/equality-map/employment-nondiscrimination/. Data as of June 12, 2026.
Percent of Adult LGBTQ Population Covered by Laws
*Note: These percentages reflect estimates of the LGBTQ adult population living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Estimates of the LGBTQ adult population in the five inhabited U.S. territories are not available, and so cannot be reflected here.
