QuoteMy previous posts on the Stanton case analyzed in detail the law governing the question of whether transsexuality is a protected category, concluding that it is.
-------------------------------------------------------
The key here is the legal procedure. The courts have long understood that figuring out what constitutes discrimination can be confusing. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the law for hundreds of years in America had always been "employment at will," meaning the employer can dismiss an employee for any reason, or no reason at all. "I don't like your face" was sufficient, and if the issue were the color of that face, so be it. The Civil Rights Act constituted a legislative exception to that rule. It said that certain reasons were illegal, specifically race, color, sex, religion and national origin. Thus, the fact that employment is called "at will" does not mean that discriminatory reasons for termination are permissible. A number of bloggers have noted that Stanton's contract calls for "at will" employment, implying that he therefore cannot complain about discrimination. But this misunderstands the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and similar statutes; such statutes supercede the "at-will" concept.