A protected class refers to groups of people who are protected from discrimination. Protected classes include such terms as race, sex, religion, color, national origin, age, and disability. This is often the easiest prong to establish under the McDonnell Douglas test. However, sometimes courts rule that people do not fit within a protected class. For example, several courts have ruled that transsexuals are not a protected class under Title VII because under Title VII sex discrimination means it is “unlawful to discriminate against women because they are women and men because they are men.”