From The Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2013/07/15/trans-woman-wins-employment-discrimination-suit-using-civil-rights
For the first time in history, the federal government is standing behind transgender employees who say they’ve been discriminated against because of their gender identity.
BY Sunnivie Brydum
July 15 2013
In what advocates hail as a historic first, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled in favor of a transgender woman who was subjected to physical and verbal harassment at her job with a federal contractor in Maryland.
After a full investigation, the EEOC ruled that supervisors failed to intervene even when they were informed of the harassment, creating a hostile workplace and violating the employee’s rights as protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, filed a complaint with the EEOC last year, following a landmark decision last April declaring that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act extends to transgender people who are harassed on the basis of their sex. Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex.
“We applaud the EEOC for conducting such a thorough investigation and interviewing so many witnesses to the anti-transgender harassment,” said Tico Almeida, president of the LGBT organization Freedom to Work. “Coming just a few months after the EEOC issued its historic decision that transgender people are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the EEOC’s reasonable cause determination in this case is, to our knowledge, the first time in history that the EEOC has investigated allegations of anti-transgender harassment and ruled for the transgender employee. This case shows that the EEOC takes very seriously its role in protecting LGBT Americans’ freedom to work.”
Complete article at: http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2013/07/15/trans-woman-wins-employment-discrimination-suit-using-civil-rights
