Donald Zarda
E642323
Donald Zarda was a skydiving instructor whose discrimination case over being fired for his sexual orientation became one of the landmark lawsuits consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision extending federal workplace protections to LGBTQ employees.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Donald Zarda canonical | 5 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7094380 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donald Zarda Context triple: [Gerald Lynn Bostock, sharesDecisionWith, Donald Zarda]
-
A.
Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny was an English-born actor and occasional aviator and inventor, best known for his prolific work in early Hollywood films and serials during the 1920s–1940s.
-
B.
Bernhard Goetz
Bernhard Goetz is an American man who gained national notoriety in the 1980s as the "Subway Vigilante" after shooting four teenagers on a New York City subway train, sparking intense debate over crime, self-defense, and race.
-
C.
Bruce Boynton
Bruce Boynton was an African American law student and civil rights activist whose challenge to segregated bus terminal facilities led to the landmark 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia.
-
D.
John Crawford
John Crawford was an American character actor known for his numerous supporting roles in film and television from the 1940s through the 1980s.
-
E.
James Carroll Beckwith
James Carroll Beckwith was an American portrait and genre painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for his refined academic style and contributions to the New York art scene.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donald Zarda Target entity description: Donald Zarda was a skydiving instructor whose discrimination case over being fired for his sexual orientation became one of the landmark lawsuits consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision extending federal workplace protections to LGBTQ employees.
-
A.
Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny was an English-born actor and occasional aviator and inventor, best known for his prolific work in early Hollywood films and serials during the 1920s–1940s.
-
B.
Bernhard Goetz
Bernhard Goetz is an American man who gained national notoriety in the 1980s as the "Subway Vigilante" after shooting four teenagers on a New York City subway train, sparking intense debate over crime, self-defense, and race.
-
C.
Bruce Boynton
Bruce Boynton was an African American law student and civil rights activist whose challenge to segregated bus terminal facilities led to the landmark 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia.
-
D.
John Crawford
John Crawford was an American character actor known for his numerous supporting roles in film and television from the 1940s through the 1980s.
-
E.
James Carroll Beckwith
James Carroll Beckwith was an American portrait and genre painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for his refined academic style and contributions to the New York art scene.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States Supreme Court case
ⓘ
employment discrimination lawsuit ⓘ person ⓘ |
| allegedDiscriminationType | sexual orientation discrimination ⓘ |
| causeOfLawsuit | alleged firing due to sexual orientation ⓘ |
| consolidatedCase |
Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda
ⓘ
linked to:
Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda
Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. ⓘ |
| consolidatedCase | R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| courtDecision | Second Circuit held that Title VII covers sexual orientation discrimination ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2014 ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 2020-06-15 ⓘ |
| defendant | Altitude Express ⓘ |
| employer | Altitude Express ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn | expansion of federal workplace protections for LGBTQ employees in the United States ⓘ |
| hasRoleIn | landmark U.S. LGBTQ employment rights litigation ⓘ |
| heldThat |
Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination includes gender identity
ⓘ
Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination includes sexual orientation ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ⓘ |
| knownFor | employment discrimination lawsuit based on sexual orientation ⓘ |
| legalAction |
filed discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
ⓘ
filed lawsuit in federal court against Altitude Express ⓘ
linked to:
Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda
|
| legalBasis | Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ⓘ |
| majorityJoinedBy |
Elena Kagan
ⓘ
John Roberts ⓘ
linked to:
John G. Roberts Jr.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⓘ Sonia Sotomayor ⓘ Stephen Breyer ⓘ
linked to:
Stephen G. Breyer
|
| majorityOpinionBy |
Neil Gorsuch
ⓘ
linked to:
Neil M. Gorsuch
|
| mannerOfDeath | skydiving accident ⓘ |
| notableEvent | death occurred before Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County ⓘ |
| notableWork | Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. ⓘ |
| occupation | skydiving instructor ⓘ |
| partOf |
Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., consolidated into Bostock v. Clayton County
ⓘ
linked to:
Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda
cases consolidated into Bostock v. Clayton County ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| plaintiff | Donald Zarda ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| sexualOrientation | gay ⓘ |
| subjectOf | interpretation of Title VII regarding LGBTQ employees ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Donald Zarda Description of subject: Donald Zarda was a skydiving instructor whose discrimination case over being fired for his sexual orientation became one of the landmark lawsuits consolidated into the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision extending federal workplace protections to LGBTQ employees.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.