A new Colorado law known as the Kelly Loving Act enshrines certain protections to transgender people. The law has sparked opposition and quite a lot of misinformation.
In this blog post, we’ll take a brief look at the Kelly Loving Act and what it means for employment law in Colorado.
What the new law does
Discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression was already illegal in Colorado under a law passed in 2021. The Kelly Loving Act, named after a transgender woman who was killed in a hate crime in 2022, expands the types of evidence transgender people are allowed to cite in a discrimination case.
For example, if an employer continues to purposely use the wrong pronouns, use the wrong name or otherwise misgenders a transgender employee, the employee can cite this behavior as evidence of discrimination under the Kelly Loving Act.
Discrimination cases and evidence
In any employment discrimination case, one of the more difficult tasks for the plaintiff is to provide evidence. They may feel very strongly that they were discriminated against because of their race, gender, religion, age or other protected characteristic, but proving it can be tricky.
For example, in many racial discrimination cases, it’s hard to find evidence that an employer used racial slurs or otherwise made it clear that they were discriminating against the employee on the basis of their race. In these cases, plaintiffs often have to provide less direct evidence. They might have to go through company records to show that the employer routinely denied promotions to qualified people of color while simultaneously advancing the careers of white employees who lacked the same qualifications.
By expanding the allowable evidence of discrimination, lawmakers make it easier for workers to protect their rights.