Jury sides with transgender employee in 'historic' Iowa case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press
Updated 6:24 pm CST, Wednesday, February 13, 2019

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A jury ruled Wednesday that an Iowa prison warden discriminated against a transgender employee by denying him the use of men's restrooms and locker rooms in a verdict that advocates call "historic."

Jurors also found that the state executive branch discriminated against Jesse Vroegh by offering medical benefits that would not cover his gender reassignment surgery. After making those findings, the eight-member jury awarded $120,000 in damages for emotional distress to Vroegh, 37, a former nurse at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Vroegh, said the lawsuit was the first related to transgender rights that's been filed since lawmakers amended the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007 to bar discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. ACLU lawyer Melissa Hasso said the verdict marks "an historic day for transgender Iowans, their friends and families."

Vroegh began working at the women's prison Mitchellville as a registered nurse in 2009. Vroegh was considered a female at work and used the women's bathrooms and locker rooms, even though he had long presented as male in clothing and hair style. In 2014, Vroegh informed his boss that he would be begin a social transition at work from female to male after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Jury-sides-with-transgender-employee-in-13614522.php

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. What we need are more restrooms that can be gender neutral.

I'm a female, happily so, and I'll say right here that I'd be very uncomfortable if someone who seems thoroughly male were to show up in a traditional women's room. It's the communal aspect of most restrooms that's the problem, at least in my opinion. There is no one easy solution, maybe have standard men's, standard women's, and standard anyone's.

A couple of years ago my city, Santa Fe, passed an ordinance that any single use restroom (meaning one that has one toilet and sink and locks) is for all. No separate single use men's or women's. It means restroom equality, and it also means that some places, like a bar I went to the other night, can make do quite happily with exactly one restroom.