Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Page Number: 45

8 

BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

the genes and organs of either biological sex may identify 
with a different gender.9 

Using  slightly  different  terms,  the  Court  asserts  again
and again that discrimination because of sexual orientation 
or gender identity inherently or necessarily entails discrim-
 See ante, at 2 (When an employer 
ination because of sex.
“fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender,”
“[s]ex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the deci-
sion”); ante, at 9 (“[I]t is impossible to discriminate against
a person for being homosexual or transgender without dis-
criminating against that individual based on sex”); ante, at 
11 (“[W]hen an employer discriminates against homosexual
or  transgender  employees,  [the]  employer  . . .  inescapably 
intends  to  rely  on  sex  in  its  decisionmaking”);  ante,  at  12 
(“For an employer to discriminate against employees for be-
ing homosexual or transgender, the employer must inten-
tionally discriminate against individual men and women in
part because of sex”); ante, at 14 (“When an employer fires 
an employee for being homosexual or transgender, it neces-
sarily and intentionally discriminates against that individ-
ual in part because of sex”); ante, at 19 (“[D]iscrimination 
based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily 
entails discrimination based on sex”).  But repetition of an 
assertion does not make it so, and the Court’s repeated as-
sertion is demonstrably untrue.

Contrary  to  the  Court’s  contention,  discrimination  be-
cause  of  sexual  orientation  or  gender  identity  does  not  in 
—————— 
Sadock,  V.  Sadock,  &  P.  Ruiz,  Comprehensive  Textbook  of  Psychiatry 
2061 (9th ed. 2009); see also American Heritage Dictionary 1607 (5th ed.
2011) (defining “sexual orientation” as “[t]he direction of a person’s sex-
ual interest, as toward people of the opposite sex, the same sex, or both 
sexes”); Webster’s New College Dictionary 1036 (3d ed. 2008) (defining 
“sexual  orientation”  as  “[t]he  direction  of  one’s  sexual  interest  toward 
members of the same, opposite, or both sexes”). 

9 See n. 6, supra; see also Sadock, supra, at 2063 (“transgender” refers 
to  “any  individual  who  identifies  with  and  adopts  the  gender  role  of  a 
member of the other biological sex”).