Tobias Wolff on ENDA and gender identity protections - and making the case

[Shana A]

Tobias Wolff on ENDA and gender identity protections - and making the case
by: Pam Spaulding
Thu Sep 03, 2009 at 11:30:00 AM EDT

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12795/tobias-wolff-on-enda-and-gender-identity-protections-and-making-the-case

Professor Tobias Wolff of the University of Pennsylvania Law School submitted a timely guest post to the Blend about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and gender identity citing a case that is a key example of the need for this to pass.The re-introduction of ENDA promises to bring with it a renewed discussion about the importance of federal statutory protections for gender identity and expression.  In the past, much of that discussion has focused on our trans brothers and sisters.  And indeed anti-trans discrimination ought to be enough by itself -- more than enough -- to justify including gender identity and expression within ENDA.  But there is a danger of drawing artificial divisions within our community when we assume that protection against discrimination based upon gender identity or expression is exclusively about trans people.  That has never been the case.  Those protections are designed to safeguard all of us against being punished because we somehow fail to conform to another persons's expectations about gender.

also at http://www.bilerico.com/2009/09/enda_and_gender_identity_protections.php

[LordKAT]

Good points included the one in comments regarding the religion angle.

[Natasha]

ENDA and gender identity protections

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/09/enda_and_gender_identity_protections.php
September 4, 2009 12:30 PM

The re-introduction of ENDA promises to bring with it a renewed discussion about the importance of federal statutory protections for gender identity and expression. In the past, much of that discussion has focused on our trans brothers and sisters. And indeed anti-trans discrimination ought to be enough by itself -- more than enough -- to justify including gender identity and expression within ENDA.

But there is a danger of drawing artificial divisions within our community when we assume that protection against discrimination based upon gender identity or expression is exclusively about trans people. That has never been the case. Those protections are designed to safeguard all of us against being punished because we somehow fail to conform to another persons's expectations about gender.