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 abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

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 requir ...

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 Mars Hill University is a private Christian university in Mars Hill, North Carolina. The university offers 35 undergraduate majors and includes a school of nursing and graduate schools in education, criminal justice, and management. From 1859 to ...

in 1984 with a degree in religious education and obtained a degree in mortuary science from

Fayetteville Technical Community College Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC or, informally, Fay Tech) is a public community college in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and a ...

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 hadn't discriminated against her. Justice

Neil Gorsuch Neil McGill Gorsuch ( ; born August 29, 1967) is an American lawyer and judge who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since ...

who argued for the

LGBTQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

community acknowledged 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 The National LGBTQ Wall of Honor is an American memorial wall in New York City dedicated to LGBTQ "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes." The wall is located inside of the Stonewall Inn and is a part of the Stonewall National Monument, the first U. ...

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 or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

’s

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the s ...

. 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 by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

dedicated to

LGBTQ rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishment for homosexualit ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

References

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