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Abstract
While previous research has been focused on measuring employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and the need for policies that protect against it, little research has been conducted to evaluate the enforcement and effectiveness of these policies. Lacking federal legislation on the matter, states with such protective policies are currently the highest level of government to address employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
This paper reviews existing state level policies (executive orders and statutes) that prohibit public employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and provides a descriptive account of their range. In an effort to better understand the enforcement and overall effectiveness of these policies, attorneys who handle employment discrimination cases were surveyed. The results from the survey provide insight into how well these policies are protecting public employees from discrimination and providing redress when it does occur.
While this paper represents exploratory and preliminary research, the initial results suggest that employees mostly seek redress for wrongful termination and are not as concerned with the issues of confidentiality and retaliation as previously thought. Furthermore, attorneys found that there were many aspects of the current nondiscrimination policies that could be improved to make the policies more effective.