In America, it's legal in 15 states to fire gay or transgender people simply based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to a new report.
Currently, the nation has a patchwork of state laws and federal court decisions that create uneven employment protections for the LGBTQ community, depending on where they live and work, according to the analysis by the Movement Advancement Project, or MAP – a Boulder, Colorado-based think tank.
'There is a geographical swath down the middle (of the country) and then a swath down the southeast that don't offer protections for (LGBTQ people),' said Naomi Goldberg, director of policy and research at MAP.
This map illustrates which states have employment protections for LGBTQ people - and which don't. Source: Movement for Advancement Project
'A majority of people in most states support protection for LGBTQ people at work, and yet there's been a lack of action on the part of lawmakers to address that will of the people,' Goldberg told DailyMail.com.
To date, 21 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws explicitly prohibiting employment discrimination against lesbians, gay and transgender people, and the queer community as a whole.
Two additional states (Pennsylvania and Michigan) explicitly interpret existing laws protecting residents from sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. One state (Wisconsin) prohibits discrimination based only on sexual orientation.
Another 26 states have no explicit protections from employment discrimination for the LGBTQ community. However, 11 of those are in a federal circuit with a ruling that explicitly interprets existing federal law as prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
That leaves 15 states where no protections exist that would prevent employers from firing someone simply for being gay or transgender.
