Federal agency, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, says transgender people protected

[Divine Discontent]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON—


In a groundbreaking decision late last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said a refusal to hire or otherwise discriminate on the basis of gender identity is by definition sex discrimination under federal law.

While some federal courts have reached the same conclusion in recent years, employment law experts say the EEOC decision sets a national standard of enforcement that offers employers clear guidance on the issue.

"This decision is important because the EEOC is the agency with lead authority to interpret and enforce the nation's employment rights laws," said Jennifer Pizer, legal director of the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy.

The case involved a California woman who claimed she was denied a contractor job with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after the contractor learned she had undergone a procedure to change her gender from male to female.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2012/04/25/federal_agency_says_transgender_people_protected/

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Wonderful news.



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[No Elephants]

1. It is great news, DD, but I am confused. Or maybe I am just not up to date.

The last I had heard, Obama recently refused to sign an executive order forbidding federal contracting with contractors who discriminate against members of the GLBT community.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/04/12/obama_and_lgbt_discrimination_executive_order_refused_.html

Did he sign it anyway? If not, how can an agency that is part of the Executive Branch do what both the Executive and Congress have chosen not to do?

I wonder, too, about enforcement. If it is not enforced, it is more of a pr move. Still, I think it very important for federal government to say "Jim Crow is not acceptable anywhere in our laws or regulations, not for women, not for racial minorities, not for religious minorities, not for members of the GLBT community, not for anyone, period."