employment discrimination

Fighting harassment on the job

 photo LaRay-Reed1_zpsj7auqzrr.jpgLa'Ray Reed began working at McDonald's in Redford, Michigan in April, 2015. She is now suing her former employer.

The transgender woman says her managers called her names like “boy-slash-she,” groped her genitals, required her to use a broom closet as a bathroom and asked her inappropriate questions about her sexual orientation and preferences on a regular basis.

She was not allowed to use wither the men's room or the women's room.

Federal Judge: Bathroom Ban violated Title VII

Bradley Roberts is a police officer in Clark County, Nevada. He has worked for the Clark County School District for 20 years. He is also a transgender man.

Officials at the Clark County School District told Roberts, who was working for the District as a resource officer that since he was born female but identifies as male, he could not use either the men's or women's bathrooms at work, but would be required to use a gender neutral bathroom.

Nearly half of employers discriminate against transgender job seekers

The National LGBTQ Task Force and the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights released a resource guide this week to help fight workplace discrimination against transgendered and gender non-conforming people.

It is one of many issues that we concentrate on this week and it is an ongoing issue in general.

--Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, Trans/Gender Nonconforming Justice Project

Discrimination is international

 photo Mr. C_zpssr2qglt2.jpgYesterday in southern China a labor arbitration panel held a hearing in China's first legal case claiming employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Identified only as Mr. C, the 28-year-old plaintiff says that he has identified as a transgender man since college.

Mr. C applied for a sales job with the Ciming Health Checkup Center in Guiyamg, Guizhou Province, last April.

Trans man sues Giant

 photo transgender-lawsuit-giant-supermarket_zps5trnqeyu.jpgSam Melrath, 22, is a trans guy who now lives in Northeast Philly. He came out as trans during 11th grade at Abington High School. He says his classmates were very supportive, as has his family been.

When his junior year ended, Sam got a summer job as a bagger at Giant Food Store in Huntingdon Valley. At the time he was living as a man, dressing as a man, and had chosen the name "Sam," which also happened to be a short version of his birth name.

After he began working there, store management began pressuring him to dress and act like his sex at birth. He says he was pressured to change his name tag from Sam to his given name at birth, even though other employees were allowed to use shortened versions of their names on their name tags, including one female employee named "Samantha" who used the shortened version "Sam."

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.

Orange County swim school creates homeless veteran

 photo Owen_zpssjklf99p.jpgJuliet Owen is a veteran. She served in the Marine Corps 1993-94, working in aviation electronics, until being honorably discharged after being diagnosed with chondromalacia (runner's knee). She is currently unemployed and homeless. Being a veteran she has managed to score housing in Long Beach's Villages at Cabrillo.

The reason for her jobless state is a sore point, however. Juliet has filed a wrongful termination complaint October 1 claiming gender identity discrimination against Australian Swim Schools, an Orange County swimming school with students aged three months to adult.

Owen said she had never experienced discrimination because of her transgender status until she moved from Virginia Beach, VA to southern California and began work as a swim instructor in May at Australian Swim Schools Anaheim location. After informing her boss that she is transgender, she was laid off a month later. She was told that not enough students had signed up for summer water safety classes, but when she visited the facility two weeks after her termination, she discovered three new employees.

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