What good are anti-discrimination laws anyway?
The District of Columbia has had anti-discrimination laws protecting transgender people for quite some time (since 2005). But a new study, qualified and transgender", by the Office of Human Rights, reveals that nearly half of D. C. employers prefer less qualified cisgender applicants to more qualified trans applicants.
Five employers will face director's inquiries from the Office of Human Rights for their results—two in the restaurant industry, two in the administrative sector, and one university. These investigations will determine whether the actions were discriminatory and could become public documents.
OHR submitted resumes to openings in various sectors from February to July.
Employment discrimination can cause high rates of unemployment or underemployment, which can lead to homelessness and prevent individuals from accessing necessary healthcare. This discrimination can also force individuals into criminalized activities or criminalized economies for survival, which often leads to incarceration and criminal records that compound the challenges they face in finding employment.--OHR
OHR found the highest rate of discrimination in the restaurant industry (67%). The retail and administrative sectors clock in at 50%.
Transgender men with work experience at a transgender advocacy organization faced a 69 percent discrimination rate, the highest on an individual basis.
OHR signaled gender identity on resumes in four ways. Two involved reference to an applicants former legal name. The other two involved using work or volunteer history in the transgender community.
All of the transgender resumes demonstrated one or two years more work experience, or .1 to .3 higher GPAs than their cisgender counterparts.
Because existing resume testing already demonstrates discrimination based on a number of characteristics like race, age, gaps in employment, and more, the study isolates gender identity. All of the applicants had Anglo-American-sounding names, attended college, were around the same age, had no gaps in employment, and lived in Petworth.
The transgender community in D.C. and around the country is not all white, not all attended college, and because of what we identify in the study, many have gaps in employment. . We're talking about the most privileged people in the transgender community and they still face a 48 percent discrimination rate.
--Elliot Imse, director of policy and communications at OHR
The study also did not cover interviews, which are a huge minefield for transgender applicants.
Director's inquiries can take up to six months, though Imse says OHR will try to finish them sooner. The respondents must remain confidential unless OHR determines discrimination occurred, at which point it can release the names of the employers.
Comments
Being retired has its advantages...
...like never again having to go through the crap that is hunting for a job.
Personally I have about three years experience in the restaurant industry and about 37 years teaching mathematics and computer programming on the college level.
My military experience was as a correctional specialist at the USDB, mostly working in the Prisoner Pay Unit of the Finance Office at Fort Leavenworth.
African Americans, women, and others covered by
non-discrimination laws have been finding this out for years. The problem is these laws are generally and rarely proactive. They require the discriminated to go through a convoluted bureaucratic process within the (corporate-sponsored) governmental maze, at the end of which process they may be vindicated by the agency (again, rare) or given the right to sue, which means scraping enough dough together to hire a lawyer, most of whom won't take the case, either because the law's loopholes leave enough room for the employer to drive a C-130 cargo plane through, or because of the massive amounts of work involved to go up against the Gucci-shod team of high-priced talent the employer deploys. It is, in most cases, a toothless system.
Now add a "new" classification into the mix, and any lawyer is looking at years of appeals to define exactly what "is" is.
And your'e right about the interviews. That's where the employers can and do really do the most mischief.
Given the past history in this country of race, ethnicity, gender, and LGBTQ discrimination, it is well past time to reverse the burden of proof to one where the employer has to make out a case they didn't discriminate.
As always, robyn, thanks for the post.
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon