Aimee Stephens (December 7, 1960 – May 12, 2020) was an American funeral director known for her fight for civil rights for

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

people. She worked as a funeral director in Detroit and was fired for being transgender. Based on her court case, in a historic 2020 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the

1964 Civil Rights Act The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex.

Early life and education

Aimee Stephens was born on December 7, 1960, in Fayetteville, N.C. She graduated from Mars Hill University in 1984 with a degree in religious education and obtained a degree in mortuary science from Fayetteville Technical Community College in 1988.

''R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission''

Stephens was fired from her job at R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home in Garden City in 2013 after she said she would wear appropriate women's business attire at work. Stephens started a legal case, arguing that she was protected under Title VII of the federal

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

. The funeral home owner argued that since he would have required everyone to dress according to the gender they had been biologically assigned at birth, he had not discriminated against her. The Supreme Court agreed with Stephens, with Justice

Neil Gorsuch Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ; born August 29, 1967) is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court ...

acknowledging that "Congress in 1964 likely did not have the LGBTQ community in mind when it banned discrimination based on sex. But he said the words of the statute are clear."

Personal life

She was married to Donna Stephens for 20 years, and they had one child together.

Death and legacy

Stephens died from complications related to kidney failure on May 12, 2020. In June 2020, Stephens was added among American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the

Stonewall National Monument Stonewall National Monument is a U.S. national monument in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The designated area includes the Stonewall Inn, the Christopher Park, and nearby streets including ...

(SNM) in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

’s

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn (also known as Stonewall) is a gay bar and recreational tavern at 53 Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It was the site of the 1969 Stonewall riots, which led to th ...

. The SNM is the first

U.S. national monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the Federal government of the United States, federal government by Presidential proclamation (United States), proclamation ...

dedicated to

LGBTQ rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Nota ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Aimee 1960 births 2020 deaths 21st-century American LGBTQ people Activists from Michigan Activists from North Carolina American funeral directors Deaths from kidney failure in the United States LGBTQ people from Michigan LGBTQ people from North Carolina American LGBTQ rights activists Mars Hill University alumni People from Fayetteville, North Carolina People from Garden City, Michigan American transgender women