BREAKING: Transgender woman wins federal lawsuit against Georgia General Assembly
by Laura Douglas-Brown and Dyana Bagby
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 12:01
http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/news/georgia-news-menu/650-breaking-transgender-woman-wins-federal-lawsuit-against-georgia-general-assemblyA federal judge ruled late Friday that the Georgia General Assembly illegally discriminated against Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman, by firing her from her job as a legislative editor when she announced her plan to transition from male to female.
"This is the happiest I've been in a very, very long time. It's been two years this month since we filed the suit and I was fired more than two and a half years ago. It's been a very long road," Glenn said Tuesday.
She said she's been temping and doing freelance editing to make ends meet. In March, she got a job with the U.S. Census.
----------------
Federal Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Woman Represented by Lambda Legal After She Was Fired By Georgia General Assembly
"The evidence was clear — Vandy Beth was fired because her boss didn't like who she is, and that kind of treatment is unfair and illegal."
http://www.lambdalegal.org/news/pr/ga_20100706_vandy-beth-glenn.html(Atlanta, GA, July 6, 2010) — Late Friday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the Georgia General Assembly discriminated against Lambda Legal client Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as Legislative Editor after she told her supervisor that she planned to transition from male to female.
United States District Court Judge Richard Story wrote: "...avoiding the anticipated negative reactions of others cannot serve as a sufficient basis for discrimination and does not constitute an important government interest."
"Today's decision by the Court proved that the Georgia General Assembly isn't above the Constitution," said M. Dru Levasseur, Transgender Rights Attorney at Lambda Legal. "The evidence was clear — Vandy Beth was fired because her boss didn't like who she is, and that kind of treatment is unfair and illegal."
