lgbtweekly.com – By Autumn Sandeen
In each of these foundational cases, the court concluded that discriminatory state action could not stand on the basis of gender stereotypes. The court’s more recent cases reiterate that the Equal Protection Clause does not tolerate gender stereotypes. Accordingly, governmental acts based upon gender stereotypes – which presume that men and women’s appearance and behavior will be determined by their sex – must be subjected to heightened scrutiny because they embody ‘the very stereotype the law condemns.’