Aimee Stephens, the Michigan woman at the center of a high-profile transgender rights case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court has died.
Stephens suffered from kidney disease and had been in hospice care at home in recent days.
Her case was argued before the justices last fall with a ruling is expected by July. Stephens was fired for being transgender by a Garden City funeral home in 2013.
Stephens explains her decision to come out.
“To start from where this began, prior I was living as a woman at home and in public and only presented as a male at work. And I got to the point where I couldn’t keep living two separate lives.”
Federal civil rights law prohibits workplace discrimination based on sex – the high court will determine if that applies to discrimination against transgender people.