Do anti-discrimination laws actually make a difference in the work place?

[Alexmakenoise]

It seems like it's pretty easy to get away with discriminating, no matter what the laws are.  The smaller the minority, the easier it is to discriminate against them.  If you don't want to hire trans people, you can find a legal excuse not to hire any trans person who applies.  If you want to fire someone because they came out, you can find a legal excuse to fire them.  Or you can make their work experience increasingly miserable in the hopes that they'll quit.

So what difference do these laws actually make? 

[Octavianus]

I honestly can't give you an answer on that. In my profession it all seems to be fairly equal. There is however a short list of airlines that won't hire women if they don't have to because of the possibility of pregnancy.
On the other hand I know of a pilot at a major Dutch airline who was a late transitioner. She was put on long leave to allow part of her transition and was later on hired again as female. They basically fired him and hired her. It was done very descrete so very little people actually know about it in detail.

[kyril]

Ask the women who went from making up almost none of the "official" work force to almost half in less than a century, who went from secretaries to CEOs, nurses to doctors, teachers to principals.

As long as a form of discrimination has the stamp of government approval, as long as it's condoned by the courts and the powers that be, it will continue to be mainstream. Taking away the official approval is a first step toward eliminating it. It's only a first step - as you mentioned, there are ways around it. But without that first step, there's simply no reason for anyone to rethink their biases.

[Randi]

I have already been told 'unofficially' of course that I will not be allowed to transition on the job. They can pretty much do whatever they want to and we have very little recourse.
Randi

[tekla]

First the make a difference with large corporations, particularly those that do business with the government where they have to attest compliance in order to qualify for a contract or bid.  Second, any company that has lawyers and/or (and they all do) insurance coverage is forced to change formal policies so that they comply, least they lose a lawsuit. 

Gradually, those corporate changes change the corporate culture, and since corporate culture is the predominate culture in the US, those changes come home and spread in the community.

The downside is that a) having enshrined such things in law, people are tempted to ignore the rest, 'you have your rights' becomes 'that's all, and that's it' pretty fast.  And, perhaps even worse, b) once such things become commonplace they become common, and people care a lot less.  Further, it will create a huge divide in the 'community' between the people what's got, and those who don't.  Given that there is some sort of protection, those that fall by the way are assumed to have done so, not because of TS/TG, but through personal failings and help for such persons will be much harder to come by, an attitude of "I've got mine and that's all I care about' tends to take over.

[rite_of_inversion]

African-Americans are still discriminated against, even though it's illegal...

http://www.jobbankusa.com/News/Hiring/hiring100803a.html

And that's a duplication of the original study that was done in Baltimore (I couldn't google it up quickly, sorry).  So, do I think that anti-discrimination laws help? yes, but they're only one piece of the puzzle.

Interesting, this-the following article says that MtFs experience a drastic downward shift in pay...while FtM's tend to get paid slightly more after transition:
http://www.youngmoney.com/careers/what-do-these-have-in-common-gender-lifestyle-choices-and-age/

(gotta love that article title though...lifestyle choices, oh yes, it's all something I chose, isn't it?*glare*)