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Private Employer Dress Codes And Laws Against Sexual Orientation And Gender Expression Discrimination: The Normative Stereotype Exception Should Not Survive, Ben Kleinman

Ben Kleinman-Green

In this paper I attempted to do two things. First, to remind readers that current exceptions to anti-discrimination law as applied to dress codes exist because courts find sexual orientation and gender to be outside the scope of Title VII and because courts have ruled that many dress codes that distinguish between men and women do not do so in an objectively harmful way. Second, to show that laws specifically prohibiting sexual orientation and gender discrimination effectively vitiate the ability of the courts to apply normative stereotype exceptions.