Izza Lopez Bias Case Moves Forward

CCH
5/20/08
Transgendered Female's Title VII Claim Moves Forward

A federal district court in Texas concluded that a biologically male applicant, living life as a female, stated a viable claim under Title VII for an employer's withdrawal of its job offer ostensibly because she misrepresented her sex during the hiring process. (Lopez v River Oaks Imaging & Diagnostic Group, Inc, SDTex, 91 EPD ¶43,164)

The court rejected the blanket assertion that Title VII offers no protection to transgendered individuals, and in the absence of Fifth Circuit precedent, applied Price Waterhouse v Hopkins, USSCt (49 EPD ¶38,936), which interpreted Title VII's protection to extend to individuals who fail to conform to traditional sex stereotypes. "There is nothing in existing case law setting a point at which a man becomes too effeminate, or a woman becomes too masculine, to warrant protection under Title VII and Price Waterhouse," emphasized the court. Holding otherwise would allow employers and courts to superimpose a classification such as "transsexual" on a plaintiff and then legitimize bias based on the gender nonconformity by formalizing it into a purportedly unprotected classification, cautioned the court.

Since there was enough evidence to defeat both parties' summary judgment motions, the applicant could proceed with her bias claim as a male who failed to conform to traditional male stereotypes, held the court.