A Georgia county has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a man whose case was one of three that led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said civil rights law protects gay, lesbian, and transgender people from discrimination in employment. The Clayton County Board of Commissioners this week approved an $825,000 settlement for Gerald Lynn Bostock.
Bostock had sued the county, which sits just south of Atlanta, saying he was fired in 2013 because he is gay. During the news conference on Friday, Bostock said, “I’m filled with joy and words can hardly express how happy I am that this is now over.” His case was one of three decided by the Supreme Court in June 2020 in a ruling that said a key part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII bars job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Bostock and his lawyers stressed that he didn’t go looking to be the face of this fight but that he was willing to stand up and see it through. Attorney Tom Mew said, “For a case that started out about what happened to Gerald the individual, and us trying to make that right, it certainly became much bigger than that.” he also gave credit to Donald Zarda and Aimee Stephens, the plaintiffs in the other two cases that prompted the Supreme Court decision.
