Saks Seems to Believe Anti-Trans Discrimination is Totally Legal

[Omaha Steve]

X post in LGBT

http://www.care2.com/causes/saks-seems-to-believe-anti-trans-discrimination-is-totally-legal.html

by Steve Williams January 14, 2015 7:00 pm



The retailer Saks is embroiled in a messy controversy this week after answering a lawsuit with what critics are calling anti-transgender and transphobic arguments.

The case centers on former employee Leyth Jamal, who says that before she was ultimately fired from a Texas Saks & Co. store, she faced being belittled by coworkers over her gender expression, being forced to use the men’s restroom, being repeatedly misgendered with male pronouns as well as allegedly being told that she should separate her “home life from her work life” and behave in a more masculine way.

Jamal duly filed a complaint in the Southern District Court of Texas contending this amounts to illegal sex discrimination on count of her trans identity, something that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided in 2012 is covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Unfortunately, the courts have been divided on whether Title VII does in fact apply in cases relating to transgender rights. As we have previously covered, this has not always been a denial that discrimination has occurred, but rather a fear that particularized discrimination against trans people is distinct from what Title VII prohibits and so (presumably) should be specifically addressed under the law. Other courts have, however, said that discrimination on grounds of perceived gender and gender expectation does fulfill the criteria for sex discrimination and so Title VII does apply.

FULL story at link.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Probably the Houston Galleria store.

Federal Court in the Southern District of Texas is Houston or Beaumont.