A Little Of This And A Little Of That - The Good

Yesterday I wrote about violence and hatred against LGBT people around the world, but there is also hope. It was hard to find positive articles about trans-people, the articles wee buried under the many articles about violence and hatred against trans-people, but there are some glimmers hope to be found.

The biggest victory that we have had in a long time was a case of discrimination in Georgia, where a trans-woman was found to have been discriminated against when she was fired from her job.

Transgender woman wins ruling against Legislature
By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 6, 2010

A federal judge in Atlanta has handed a legal victory to Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from her job as legislative editor for the Georgia General Assembly after announcing she would transition from male to female.

In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard Story ruled Glenn was subjected to sex discrimination. The judge also scheduled a July 13 hearing to determine what remedy should be granted to Glenn.
[…]
Story, in a 50-page ruling, dismissed concerns that legislative leaders would lose confidence in the Office of Legislative Counsel if Glenn remained employed there. "[A]voiding the anticipated negative reactions of others cannot serve as a sufficient basis for discrimination and does not constitute an important government interest," Story wrote.

On the DiversityInc web-site they write that…

Transgender Woman Wins Discrimination Suit
By Gail Zoppo
Jul 8, 2010

Last September, Glenn testified at a congressional hearing on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which, if passed, would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. It's currently legal to fire or refuse to hire someone for being lesbian, gay or bisexual in 29 states, while transgender workers can be denied or refused jobs in 38 states, reports the Human Rights Campaign.

In this case, however, "the court proved that the Georgia General Assembly isn't above the constitution," says Lambda Legal transgender-rights attorney Dru Levasseur, who is co-representing Glenn, in a press release. "The evidence was clear—Vandy Beth was fired because her boss didn’t like who she is, and that kind of treatment is unfair and illegal."

Here is a video of her testimony to Congress…
The Human Resources Executive Online had this to say about ENDA…

Time for Action
By Susan R. Meisinger
July 10, 2010

Talent-management programs require hiring managers and HR leaders to focus on skills and abilities, and ignore the irrelevant. That's why bias -- for whatever reason -- ultimately harms a company's bottom line as the most-qualified candidates are ignored in favor of nonproductive reasons.
[…]
Just as it was time to enact the ADA 20 years ago to recognize that disability shouldn't be a job disqualifier, its time to enact the Employment Non-Discrimination Act -- and recognize that sexual orientation and transgender status shouldn't disqualify an otherwise qualified candidate.

ENDA isn't a new proposal; bills have been introduced in Congress since 1994. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have already made it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and 12 states and DC have made it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity.

And just as most major companies adopted policies stating they wouldn't discriminate against people with disabilities well before the ADA was enacted, growing numbers of companies have enacted policies protecting their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

As of September 2009, 434 (87 percent) of the Fortune 500 had implemented nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation, and 207 (41 percent) had policies that prohibit bias based on gender identity.

And what is the status of ENDA? It is tied up in Congress over BATHROOMS! They are worried that some people might be offended by have a trans-person going the bathroom.

The United States as usual is trailing the rest of the world in Human Rights issues. Europe has recognized trans-rights as Human Rights for years and in Ireland the government there just lost a court case about trans-rights,

Appeal against transgender ruling withdrawn
The Irish Times
By Jamie Smyth
June 22, 2010

THE GOVERNMENT has withdrawn its appeal against a landmark ruling by the High Court that Irish law on transgender rights is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The decision brings to an end a 13 year legal battle against the State by Dr Lydia Foy, a former dentist who was registered as male at birth and fought for legal recognition to live as a woman.

It also paves the way for the Government to propose new legislation giving transsexuals the right to obtain birth certificates showing their acquired sex and the entitlement to marry in that gender.
[…]
Under current law a transgendered person cannot have a birth certificate issued with his or her new gender, and does not have the right to marry in that identity.

However, in October 2007 the High Court, in a case brought by Lydia Foy, stated that Irish law on issuing identity documents to transgendered people was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

But here we are still debating to end employment discrimination for LGBT people, never mind housing, public accommodations, and credit, which isn’t even being discussed by Congress. It is still legal in over 25 of the states to deny housing to a LGBT person or to sever a LGBT person in a restaurant or refuse to give them a loan.