This is an excerpt of a story published by NPR Illinois on June 16, 2022.
The University Press of Kansas published in May a book by University of Illinois political science professor Jason Pierceson, a leading scholar on LGBTQ issues.
Pierceson’s book is called “Before Bostock: The Accidental LGBTQ Precedent of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins.”
“I wrote a book chapter about transgender rights in the courts. And it seemed to me more needed to be told about the story about the influence of this case of Price Waterhouse in Hopkins” legacy in this area and how it wasn't immediately obvious.”
Pierceson showed how Bostock, the landmark 2020 LGBTQ case, was related to another ruling on sex-stereotyping of a cisgender, heterosexual woman. Ann Hopkins of Washington sued the accounting firm Waterhouse because it had failed to promote her to partner even though she was one of the leading contract winners. The woman had been ridiculed by people in the firm for talking like a man because she and she had other so-called male behaviors like swearing.