The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which handles cases in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, decided 8-3 that discrimination on the basis of "sex" also means discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation."  

The ruling is significant because it recognizes special protections for LGBTQ status in existing law, making gay activists' attempts to create LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws unnecessary.

Progressives hailed the ruling. Vox called it "the biggest pro-gay rights legal decision since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality." Lambda Legal, which handled the case, said, "This decision is game-changer."

"It's the first federal appeals court decision to rule that anti-gay discrimination is banned under existing federal law," Vox's David McNew reported. "What activists want to do is expand the existing civil rights protections to also protect LGBTQ people."

Scott Shackford of Reason.com said, "Suddenly, without passing any new laws, we have a new protected class under federal law."

Indeed, if the decision is allowed to stand, it would essentially add LGBTQ protections to existing laws. Discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation"—an undefined phrase that could potentially be expanded to mean any number of sexual preferences—counts as discrimination on the basis of being male or female.

"This is something that will roll out coast to coast, we think," predicted attorney Greg Nevins of Lambda Legal, the nation's largest pro-gay bank of attorneys.

In its ruling, the appellate court explained, "It would require considerable calisthenics to remove the ‘sex' from ‘sexual orientation.' The effort to do so has led to confusing and contradictory results."

Opponents say the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant "gender," as in male and female, when it outlawed discrimination based on "sex," and did not speak to any variant sexual practice. They argue that the court-referenced "confusing and contradictory results" have come with more recent court decisions infusing transgender issues into the law.

The implications are indeed far reaching for this interpretation of the word "sex" in American law.  

The fact that historically the word was used by legislators and legally understood by justices to refer to male and female is not disputed. But with more than 50 separate gender identities now being infused into American business and education, gay activists say that "what the original laws' authors believed or intended is irrelevant."

The court admitted that its decision was based not on the intent of the 1964 Civil Rights Act but on recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

"In this case, we have been asked to take a fresh look at our position in light of developments at the Supreme Court extending over two decades," decision author Judge Diane Wood explained. "We have done so, and we conclude today that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination."

The case focused on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which deals with workplace discrimination. But many courts have ruled that Title IX, which deals with schools, should be interpreted the same way.

In other words, if upheld by the Supreme Court, the decision would create explicit protections for homosexuals in employment, housing, and education, regardless of a business owner's, landlord's, or school's sincerely held...

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