Employment Lawyers Are Sounding the Alarm About a New Virus and Potential Discrimination | New Jersey Law Journal – Law.com

While scientists are still learning how the monkeypox virus is transmitted, some employment lawyers are raising a warning about the potential for discrimination and harassment claims stemming from the virus’s link to gay and bisexual men.

Those employment lawyers say they haven’t given much thought to monkeypox, but others see the potential that fear of the virus will prompt an uptick in anti-gay harassment and discrimination. They see parallels to the ostracism that gay men faced in the early days of the AIDS epidemic and the harassment directed at Asian Americans during COVID-19.

Julie Levinson Werner of Lowenstein Sandler. Courtesy photo