Sexual harassment or discrimination of any kind on the job can be a devastating event both emotionally and financially. This kind of emergency is among those that an emergency fund is useful for.

A few weeks ago I clipped a news story from Human Resource Executive Online that discussed a topic I follow for my law school’s blog. Here is a human rights topic that closely relates to career and employment which in turn relates to our financial bottom line.

The news clipping specifically reads:

“The number of men claiming to be victims of sexual harassment is growing. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex bias is illegal, federal law on the subject is ‘murky.'”

The United States Supreme Court case that unanimously interpreted federal statutes as prohibiting same-sex sexual harassment is Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services (1998) 523 US 75. The Court cited its earlier refusal to presume that an employer will not discriminate against a member of her or his own race as it explicitly affirmed the notion that federal anti-discrimination laws protect men as well as women. This analogical support led the court to reason that same-sex, specifically male-to-male, sexual harassment and discrimination is also illegal.

The situation adds another layer to a topic, fellow Queercents blogger, John recently covered on the costs of being out. Currently there remain two additional and somewhat unsettled questions that make it even more difficult to asses the costs associated with being out.

First, it is unclear, according to the article in Human Resource Executive Online, how courts should or are supposed to treat claims of same-sex harassment when the complainant (the person claiming harassment) is not gay but when the harassment is based on a perception that the complainant is gay.

“Often, such cases involve men who are harassed by other men because they are perceived as being gay — whether or not they are actually gay, says Deborah Zalesne, a law professor at the City University of New York, who specializes in sexual harassment law.”

“They’re often picked on because they seem effeminate or socially awkward,” she says. “In many cases, the person claiming harassment is not gay.”

Second, there is no federal law that specifically prohibits same-sex sexual harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation. The current interpretation of the federal statutes in question seem to provide some measure of protection but that could change if the Court later decides to interpret the same language to mean something other than what it interprets it to mean now.

The Federal Equal Opportunity Commission is charged with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws in employment and is a good place to find more information on what to do if you think you have been unlawfully discriminated against.