On March 4, 1998, the Supreme Court ruled that federal laws banning sexual harassment apply even when both parties are of the same sex. Although the parties in the lawsuit were heterosexual, the ruling has been hailed as a victory for gay rights.
Joseph Oncale worked on an off-shore rig for Sundowner Offshore Services in the Gulf of Mexico. He had to endure humiliating sex-related harassment from his co-workers. When his complaints to management went ignored, he took his case to the US District Court in Louisiana, who sided with his employer. When the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit also upheld the decision, Oncale petitioned the Supreme Court.
The late Justice Scalia wrote: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services set the precedent for analyzing same-sex harassment, and sexual harassment without motivation of "sexual desire", stating that any discrimination based on sex is actionable so long as it places the victim in an objectively disadvantageous working condition, regardless of the gender of either the victim or the harasser.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-568.ZS.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncale_v._Sundowner_Offshore_Services,_Inc.
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