Department Of The Army Found To Have Discriminated Against Transgender Employee

We recently reported on President Obama's amendment to Executive Order 11246 banning discrimination based on LGBT status. Now the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has found that the Department of the Army discriminated against a transgender civilian employee in violation of a separate federal law, and strongly suggested that such discrimination is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII.

The civilian employee had transitioned from a man to a woman beginning in 2010, changing her name and adopting a female appearance. When employees expressed concerns, the agency restricted her to an executive, single-stall restroom until she underwent gender reassignment surgery. When she used the female restroom out of necessity on several occasions, she was told to use the single-stall restroom because she was making coworkers uncomfortable. Her supervisor, apparently intentionally, kept using her male birth name and male pronouns, months after she asked to be referred to as female. Management asked the...