42 U.S.C. § 12211
Section 12211 · Definitions
This is § 512 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 19 court decisions — leading case Den Hartog v. Wasatch Academy (1997)
Most recently applied in Kesha Williams v. Stacey Kincaid (October 2022)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of the definition of “disability” in section 12102(2) 1 of this title, homosexuality and bisexuality are not impairments and as such are not disabilities under this chapter.
Under this chapter, the term “disability” shall not include—
(1) transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or other sexual behavior disorders;
(2) compulsive gambling, kleptomania, or pyromania; or
(3) psychoactive substance use disorders resulting from current illegal use of drugs.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This chapter, referred to in text, was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 101–336, July 26, 1990, 104 Stat. 327, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 12101 of this title and Tables.
Section 12102 of this title, referred to in subsec. (a), was amended generally by Pub. L. 110–325, §4(a), Sept. 25, 2008, 122 Stat. 3555, and, as so amended, provisions formerly appearing in par. (2) are now contained in par. (1).
Prior Provisions
A prior section 512 of Pub. L. 101–336, which amended former section 706 of Title 29, Labor, was renumbered section 513.