We have written frequently about various states and municipalities outlawing discrimination in employment against transgendered individuals. (On November 18, 2011 we noted that Massachusetts became the 16th state to outlaw such discrimination, and as recently as April 1st we wrote about a debate in Anchorage about this issue),
Now the EEOC has held, for the first time, that under Title VII discrimination against a transgendered individual is a form of sex discrimination. Transgendered individuals can now file charges of such discrimination with the EEOC.
See the excellent ediscussion of Macy v. Holder, EEOC case number 0210210821, by Professor Arthur Leonard of New York Law School.
In this case Mia Macy, a transgender woman, who was a detective told that she would be hired by the federal ATF agency pending a background check, was not, in fact, hired after she disclosed her transgendered status. Although the EEOC did not pass upon the merits of Macy’s case, it nonetheless ruled that under the famous Supreme Court case of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins where the Court held that sex discrimination under Title VII related to gender, as well as biological sex, “gender discrimination” included discrimination against transgender people.