LGBTQ+ Discrimination Lawyers

LGBTQ+ Workplace Rights in California: What FEHA Protects

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) expressly protects workers against discrimination based on sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. These protections apply to hiring, compensation, benefits, promotions, termination, and other terms of employment.

Your Rights Under FEHA

• Equal treatment: Government Code § 12940(a) prohibits covered employers from making discriminatory employment decisions because of these protected characteristics.
• Protection from harassment: Section 12940(j) prohibits workplace harassment based on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
• Protection from retaliation: Section 12940(h) prohibits retaliation for opposing unlawful discrimination or participating in a FEHA complaint proceeding.
• Prevention of discrimination and harassment: Section 12940(k) requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment.

FEHA’s employment discrimination provisions generally cover employers with five or more employees. Its harassment protections generally apply even in workplaces with only one employee. Certain statutory exceptions can affect coverage.

What Can LGBTQ+ Workplace Discrimination Look Like?

The following are illustrative situations. Whether conduct violates the law depends on the facts and applicable legal standards.

• Intentional misgendering: A supervisor repeatedly uses the wrong name or pronouns after a transgender or nonbinary employee explains how they should be addressed. California regulations address an employer’s failure to respect an employee’s stated name, gender, or pronouns, with an exception for legally required records.
• Denial of equal benefits: An employer offers spousal benefits to otherwise eligible different-sex couples but refuses equivalent benefits to an eligible employee because their spouse is the same sex.
• Hostile treatment: Coworkers direct anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, degrading jokes, or threats at an employee. Harassment can be unlawful when sufficiently severe or pervasive; context matters.
• Discriminatory career decisions: A qualified employee loses a promotion or client-facing assignment because a manager objects to their gender expression or learns they are gay, bisexual, or transgender.
• Retaliation after reporting: An employee’s shifts are cut or they receive a punitive reassignment because they reported anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination or harassment.

Documented Cases: How These Protections Apply

Shake Shack gender-identity settlement (2023): California’s Civil Rights Department announced a pre-litigation settlement involving allegations that coworkers repeatedly misgendered a transgender employee and management failed to correct the behavior. The resolution included a $20,000 payment, policy updates, training, and reporting requirements. This was a settlement of allegations, not a trial verdict. Read CRD’s settlement announcement .

Bailey v. San Francisco District Attorney’s Office (2024): The California Supreme Court explained that an isolated act of harassment can be actionable if sufficiently severe under the totality of the circumstances. The case involved racial harassment, not LGBTQ+ discrimination, but illustrates FEHA’s broader harassment standard. The court allowed disputed issues to proceed rather than awarding damages. Read the court’s opinion .

Legal references: California Government Code § 12940 ; California Code of Regulations, title 2, § 11030; and CRD’s transgender and gender-nonconforming employee rights guide .