Final answer:
The statement is false; there were several legal actions and executive orders before 2020 that protected gay men and lesbians from discrimination, including court rulings like Romer v. Evans and executive orders by Presidents Clinton and Obama, culminating in the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement 'No Supreme Court ruling or national legislation explicitly protected gay men and lesbians from discrimination' is False. Although comprehensive protections have been slow and patchwork, there were significant legal precedents and executive orders that provided varying degrees of protection for the LGBTQ community prior to 2020. As early as 1965, discrimination against gay individuals in federal employment was ruled unlawful in a federal district court. Significant victories also include the 1996 Supreme Court decision in Romer v. Evans that struck down Colorado's Amendment 2, which had attempted to prevent laws protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Additionally, President Clinton signed an executive order in 1998 that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation within the federal service workforce, and President Obama signed an order in 2014 extending these protections to federal contractors on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity.
Furthermore, in 2020, the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia determined that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does indeed protect LGBTQ employees against workplace discrimination. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that there was no explicit protection against discrimination for gay men and lesbians before these developments.