The U S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled on April 1 in a recent case brought by trans woman Tamara Lusardi that denying transgender people access to restrooms or respecting name changes violates federal sex discrimination law.
The EEOC ruling also confirms the October 2014 ruling by the Office of Special Council that the Army had discriminated against Ms Lusardi.
The Army also has to pay the trans lady an unspecified amount in damages and provide discrimination training in the office where Lusardi works..
Lusardi is a civilian Army employee in Huntsville, AL and filed the case after she began her transition in 2010. She was forced to use a single stall restroom and denied use of the women’s restroom. Lusardi also stated that a team leader persistently referred to her using male pronouns and made other hostile transphobic remarks.
This EEOC ruling in the Lusardi case expands upon its previous findings in Macy v Holder that Title VII sex discrimination protections include transgender people. It also sends a clear message that denying trans employees access to the correct gender presentation matching restroom is discrimination.
The reason I'm surmising this would potentially put an end to the conservafool attempts to demonize trans people by using bathroom bills is twofold.
The Department of Justice has recently begun interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to be inclusive of trans people for sex discrimination It was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that ended racially segregated bathrooms, and it could also be interpreted to mean that these laws that GOP legislators are rushing to try to enact will be a waste of time because they will overruled and eventually found unconstitutional.
At any rate, this is a huge win with the potential to have ripple effect beyond just Lusardi's case. ,
"From the start, this has been about getting a fair shake to work hard at a job I love," said Lusardi in a statement. "This decision makes it clear that, like everybody else in the workplace, transgender people should be judged by the quality of the work we do, not who we are."
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