For the first time in the nation's history, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that LGBTQ employees are protected from workplace discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.In 2013, professor Kimberly Hively filed a lawsuit against an Indiana community college alleging that the college had repeatedly refused to hire her for a full-time position because she was openly lesbian. A district court dismissed her claims, saying that sexual orientation wasn't a protected class under the Civil Rights Act.But the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision Tuesday, ruling that because the Civil Rights Act explicitly outlines that an employee's "sex" can't be used to discriminate against her, employers also can't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation—even though, the court's opinion acknowledges, "It is quite possible that these interpretations may also have surprised some who served in the [1964] Congress."Continue reading on VICE News