For the first time within the 2nd Circuit, a federal district judge has ruled that a transgender person’s equal protection claim will receive “heightened scrutiny” from the court. Senior District Judge Jed Rakoff’s ruling November 15 in Adkins v. City of New York, 2015 Westlaw 7076956, relied on the 2nd Circuit’s decision in Windsor v. United States (which was affirmed on due process grounds by the Supreme Court), finding that anti-gay discrimination merited a … <Read More>
gender identity discrimination
Civil Rights Through Administrative Action: Can It Be Effective?
When legislatures refuse to act on proposals to protect LGBT people from discrimination, can civil rights agencies and executive officials just go ahead and extend the protection on their own? Some recent events put this question sharply into play.
In July 2014, President Obama signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to adopt policies banning discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity and extending protection against gender identity discrimination to applicants and employees in … <Read More>
Federal Court Explains Pretrial Motion Rulings Against Transgender Student in Restroom Lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar issued an opinion on September 17 in G. G. v. Gloucester County School Board, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124905, 2015 WL 5560190 (E.D. Va.), explaining his earlier bench decision in July dismissing the plaintiff’s Title IX count and his September 4 denial of the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction in a dispute over restroom usage at the Gloucester, Virginia, High School. The plaintiff, a transgender boy, is … <Read More>
Wide-Ranging LGBT Equality Bill Introduced in Congress for the First Time
The Equality Act, introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island on July 23, 2015, is the first truly comprehensive federal measure attempting to provide legal equality for LGBT people in the United States. It goes far beyond all prior bills on this topic, because none of the bills introduced in Congress included gender identity until relatively recently and the main federal bills of recent vintage have been narrowly … <Read More>
Federal Court Refuses to Dismiss Transgender Professor’s Sex Discrimination Lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Robin J. Cauthron denied a motion to dismiss a Title VII sex discrimination claim filed by the Justice Department on behalf of a transgender woman against Southeastern Oklahoma State University, alleging that she suffered discriminatory treatment and a denial of tenure after she announced her intent to transition. %United States v. Southeastern Oklahoma State University%, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89547 (W.D. Okla., July 10, 2015).
Dr. Rachel Tudor, the University … <Read More>
Transgender Student Loses Fight Over Expulsion from UPJ
The federal court for the Western District of Pennsylvania rejected a discrimination lawsuit by a transgender man who was expelled from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in January 2012 for insisting on using men’s restroom and locker room facilities. Just one day before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the Army had unlawfully discriminated against a transgender woman by denying her the right to use women’s facilities, U.S. District Judge Kim R. … <Read More>
EEOC Rules on Transgender Employee Restroom Rights
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency charged with enforcement of federal bans on sex discrimination in employment, has ruled that a transgender woman employed in a civilian position by the U.S. Department of the Army, is entitled to use restroom facilities consistent with her gender identity, despite the agency’s objection to providing such access before the individual has undergone sex-reassignment surgery. Although the EEOC had previously ruled that refusal to employ somebody because … <Read More>
India’s Highest Court Declares Equal Rights for Members of India’s Transgender Community
In a historic decision, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India, ruling on a petition brought by the National Legal Services Authority on behalf of members of the transgender community, has declared that among the human rights protected by the Indian Constitution are the rights of individuals to State recognition of their gender identity and sexual orientation, and to be free of official discrimination on these grounds. The original petitioner was joined by … <Read More>
New York Trial Judge Refuses to Dismiss Transgender Woman’s Discrimination Claim Against Residential Drug Treatment Program
Finding that a transgender woman who was sent to a residential drug treatment program under a plea agreement had sufficiently alleged that she encountered discrimination there, New York Acting Supreme Court Justice Debra Silber denied a motion to dismiss Sabire Wilson’s housing discrimination claims under state and New York City law against Phoenix House and Sydney Hargrove, the director of Phoenix’s induction unit. Justice Silber’s opinion, dated December 10, was published by the New York … <Read More>
Justice Department Finds ATF Discriminated Unlawfully in Transgender Discrimination Case
The Justice Department’s Complaint Adjudication Office (CAO) issued a decision on July 8 holding that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 2011 when it denied a position as a contract Ballistics Forensic Technician to an applicant who was in the process of transitioning from male to female. In its first such ruling, the CAO applied an earlier decision in the case by the … <Read More>