The Undergraduate Law Review at UC San Diego

LGBTQ people of color in the United States face disproportionately high rates of discrimination and harassment in employment as a population marginalized along the lines of race, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity. This article uses an intersectional lens to examine the use of state antidiscrimination law in protecting LGBTQ people of color. Discrimination protections across states are inconsistent and severely lacking in some jurisdictions. Several states do not prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, and most do not recognize an adequate legal framework for analyzing discrimination on the basis of multiple traits. This article proposes statutory, administrative, and judicial solutions that states can adopt to allow LGBTQ plaintiffs of color to challenge discrimination on the basis of both race and sexual orientation/gender identity. Legislatures should amend antidiscrimination statutes to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes, as well as explicitly state that employees can make claims on the basis of multiple protected characteristics. Executive antidiscrimination agencies should provide guidelines to courts on how to evaluate intersectional cases brought by LGBTQ people of color. Finally, state courts should adopt judicial precedents that embrace intersectional analysis and qualify sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories under existing antidiscrimination statutes.