Sex discrimination: The word sex should have been interpreted to include sexual orientation

The word "sex" in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 should, as the law stood days before the Human Rights Act 1998 came fully into force, have been interpreted to include sexual orientation, in the opinion of the EAT in MacDonald v Ministry of Defence 19.9.00 EAT(S) 121/00. That was the interpretation that the European Court of Human Rights had recently put on the same word, where it appears in the European Convention of Human Rights, and the courts would presume that Parliament intended to legislate in conformity with the Convention when constructing domestic legislation that was capable of a meaning that either conformed to or conflicted with it.