From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/mia-macy-transgender_n_3612874.html
By Aaron Sankin Posted: 07/18/2013
Transgender advocates were handed a victory earlier this week when the Department of Justice ruled that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) broke the law in not offering a job to a ballistics expert after discovering that she was transgender.
In June of 2011, Mia Macy, a military veteran who had worked as a detective on the Phoenix, Ariz. police force, filed suit against the ATF. In it, she claimed that her transgender status was the reason she was not selected for a position as a ballistics forensics technician at an agency field office in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek.
When Macy began the application process, she identified as male. By the time the final hiring decision was made, Macy had changed her name and now identifies as a woman.
The decision requires that ATF offer Macy the position, provide back pay and benefits with interest, as well as cover her legal costs. In addition, the agency will be forced to implement anti-discrimination policies for that particular facility.
“It’s a victory for all transgender people to know that we have a voice, that we have recourse, and that when it comes to workplace protections we deserve to make a living,” said Macy in a statement. “I couldn’t be happier.”
According to the DoJ’s 51-page report, Macy applied for a position where she would use a computer program to match digital images of the markings on bullet casings from crime scenes with those stored in an ATF database. Macy has said she is one of about 40 people in the United States certified by the agency to use the software, and insisted that she was never informed that she “lacked any qualifications for the job.”
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/mia-macy-transgender_n_3612874.html
