Court rules that Title VII prohibits gender identity discrimination
Filed by: Nan Hunter
September 20, 2008 3:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/court_rules_that_title_vii_prohibits_gen.phpYesterday, in the first ever victory directly on this point, the ACLU won a federal court decision holding that discrimination against a transgender person constitutes per se sex discrimination in violation of Title VII. In Schroer v Billington, Judge James Robertson of the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Library of Congress discriminated against Diane Schroer when it rescinded a job offer to her after Schroer disclosed that she was transitioning from male to female.(Link to text after the jump.)
The most important aspect of the decision is the ruling that discrimination based on gender identity is literally discrimination based on sex. Schorer's lawyers argued, and the judge agreed, that gender identity is a component of sex, and therefore discrimination based on gender identity is sex discrimination. This might sound like a simple proposition, but previous federal courts have "carved [transgender] persons out of the statute by concluding that 'transsexuality' is unprotected by Title VII."
