www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0406/21/a09-189281.htm
By Deb Price / The Detroit News
A series of trailblazing rulings is sending employers the unmistakable signal that, if they want to stay on the proper side of the law, they need to make their workplaces ready to welcome transgendered workers.
Breaking away from the backward rulings of the 1970s and ’80s, early 21st century courts are quickly making clear that employers will not be allowed to discriminate against transgendered workers — or anyone else — simply because they do not conform to traditional gender roles.
This legal trend in federal and state courts will greatly benefit workers who, through surgery and hormone treatments, have changed or are in the process of changing from male to female or vice versa. It will also protect workers whose clothing, mannerisms or other personal traits depart from rigid gender stereotypes.
In embracing transgendered workers, courts are largely relying on a groundbreaking 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling — Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins — which declared a top-notch accountant’s bosses had no right to harass her over what they saw as unfeminine behavior. The new rulings also rely on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws job discrimination based on gender, and the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.