Jobs, EEOC & Title VII

The Obama administration is sending out mixed signals when it comes to job discrimination  for gender identity. Back in May the EEOC released a new policy to protect trans-people in employment, a NTCE press statement said…

NCTE congratulates our colleagues at the Transgender Law Center who tonight, announced a significant federal workplace rights victory. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled in a 5-0 decision that an employer who discriminates against a transgender employee or job applicant because of the person’s gender identity is illegal sex discrimination based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Though this ruling follows a growing number of court decisions around the country that have held that transgender people are protected by existing federal anti-discrimination laws, this is the first decision by the EEOC on this issue.

But in an article in Buzz Feed a few days ago said that…

The Department of Labor may not be enforcing protections for transgender employees of federal contractors — despite a three-month-old ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that should be applied to such workers under current Labor policies.

According to an investigation by BuzzFeed, in the past month alone the federal government has granted hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts subject to the Labor Department's oversight with companies that have not put in place rules protecting workers from discrimination based on gender identity.

Meanwhile, according to Business Management Daily  the EEOC…

THE LAW: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects employees and job applicants from discrimination because of sex. While Title VII traditionally has protected women from workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, the Supreme Court broadened its application in 1998, with a decision in Oncale v. Sun­­downer.

Citing Oncale, the EEOC has now stated that it believes Title VII prohibits workplace discrimination against transgender people—those whose gender identity or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Oncale is a Supreme Court decision that “sex discrimination consisting of same-sex sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII.

The United States Supreme Court's decision in 'Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.' declared that claims of same-sex sexual harassment are cognizable under Tide VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This decision ended the debate in the federal courts over this question by expressly disapproving of the Fifth Circuit's rejection of such claims.
[…]
Now that the Supreme Court has recognized same-sex sexual harassment claims because such claims are consistent with the language and objectives of Title VII, it bears noting that recognition of such claims under Title VII will have several desirable effects. First, these claims will not be used as a new tool in the oppression of gay men and lesbians under the law, as some commentators claim.  Instead, same-sex harassment claims will be a vehicle for outlawing sexual orientation discrimination by creating an incentive for the heterosexual majority, via illustrations in individual cases that heterosexuality is not a characteristic protected by Title VII, to lobby for passage of an amendment to Title VII or for passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act...

And now the EEOC has based their decision regarding gender identity on this ruling by the Supreme Court,  we need to pressure the EEOC Dept of Labor OFCCP to enforce their policy. They are sending mixed signed, they published the policy on gender identity discrimination, but they are not enforcing the policy.