Georgia Trans Employee Wins for All the Right Reasons
Filed By Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | December 08, 2011 12:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/12/glenn_v_brumby_why_trans_rights_triumphed_in_georg.phpTwo days ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit handed a significant win to a transsexual employee in the case of Glenn v. Brumby. What makes this decision significant is not only that the 11th Circuit covers one of the most conservative parts of the country (Georgia, Alabama and Florida), but more significantly that it adopted the idea that discrimination against a trans employee is sex discrimination, under the federal sex discrimination statute, the third U.S. Court of Appeals to do so. (This case itself is premised on a different legal theory, but the decision specifically mentions the federal statute as comparable.) As the old saying goes, once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. The fact that three U.S. appeals courts have now ruled in favor of transgender employees is very, very significant.
Congratulations to plaintiff Vandy Beth Glenn, and kudos to Lambda Legal and to attorney Greg Nevins, who did an excellent job of shepherding this case through the 11th Circuit. This decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but some observers have suggested that this is not the type of case the Supreme Court is likely to take, nor one that employers would like to see in that Court, and I agree with those observations.
