EEOC Extends Protection to Transgendered Woman

The New York Times reports, “In a decision hailed by advocates for transgender people, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that a California woman who was denied a job at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after revealing that she was transitioning from her former life as a man can seek legal redress under sex-discrimination regulations.” Story here

Mia Macy, 39, contends that “she had been promised a job in a bureau crime laboratory in Walnut Creek, Calif., in early 2011,” when she was living as a man. Later that year, “she told officials at the bureau that she was intending to legally live as a woman, and shortly after was told that the position was no longer available, she said.”

The EEOC found “that ‘intentional discrimination against a transgender individual because that person is transgender’ is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination.”