Trans Rights Now Part 2

After I wrote the blog for this morning's post last night, I got an email about a Pledge to add to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, here is the Pledge…

    THE PLEDGE FOR FULL LGBT EQUALITY

    IN ORDER TO FULFILL the promises of life and liberty, and to ensure equal protection of the law as guaranteed by the United States Constitution;

    TO PROTECT the inalienable human right to be safe from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as required by international law and treaty; and

    TO END the systemic stigmatization, cease the societal rejection and heal the suffering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans as mandated by conscience;

    WE, the undersigned, pledge our support for the passage of omnibus LGBT equality legislation that grants full non-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity equal to those accorded other statuses under existing civil rights laws and Supreme Court jurisprudence, specifically including:

        Public Accommodations (Title II, 1964 Civil Rights Act)(e.g., restaurants, hotels, theaters)
        Public Facilities (Title III, 1964 Civil Rights Act) (e.g., courthouses, jails, hospitals, parks)
        Federally-Funded Programs (Title VI, 1964 Civil Rights Act) (e.g., adoption, police, schools, homeless youth, health care)
        Employment (Title VII, 1964 Civil Rights Act; 1978 Civil Service Reform Act; 1991 Government Employee Rights Act; 1995 Congressional Accountability Act; 10 U.S.C. Ch. 37) (e.g., civilian and military government, private sector)
        Housing (Title VIII, 1968 Civil Rights Act, aka the Fair Housing Act) (e.g., rental, purchase, finance)
        Education (Title IX, 1972 Education Amendments Act) (e.g., schools, bullying)
        Credit (1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act) (e.g., credit cards)
        Federal Marriage Equality (based on gender/sexual orientation) (e.g., 1967 Supreme Court Decision, Loving v. Virginia)
        Immigration, Disability, and Family Leave (Uniting American Families Act (proposed), the American With Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act)

    We call upon the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus to lead the way by filing an omnibus LGBT equality bill immediately that includes all of the provisions enumerated above.

    We further call upon Congress, and all candidates for elected office, to sign this pledge to pass such omnibus LGBT equality legislation immediately, but no later than 2014 -- the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- fulfilling both their individual duty and that of the United States government to ensure justice, equality, and fundamental human rights protections for all Americans.

This is something that I have been advocating for a long time, I agree with the Pledge; however, it is missing one thing. Gender Expression.

When we were fighting to pass Connecticut’s gender inclusive anti-discrimination law one of the thing that we were very conscious of was that we needed both gender identity and gender expression because without gender expression crossdressers would not be covered by the law. Also without gender expression an employer could theoretically say that he had no problem with you being transsexual but had a problem with you dressing in your true gender. It would also not cover gender variant people who dress androgynous or the feminine man or the masculine woman.

Many of the court cases that resulted in the Connecticut CHRO ruling that trans-people were covered under the existing sex discrimination law were about how people dressed or looked or behaved. Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins Supreme Court case was one of the rulings that resulted in our protection. The Price Waterhouse case was also a factor in last year’s EEOC ruling. In the Price Waterhouse the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII covered appearance as well as sex discrimination. In the Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services case the Supreme Court found that it was sexual harassment when a straight man with long hair and an earring was harassed because of the way that he expressed himself. There was also a case where an employee of Winn Dixie was fired when they found out that he crossdressed, without gender expression this would still be legal.

So we need both gender identity and expression one without the other will not work and I will not support the Pledge as it is written now, but this is a step in the right direction.

Update 10:45PM: The author  posted this reply to a similar question...

Yes, of course. This is covered in the definition being used for Gender Identity that is intended to address Expression directly (this is standard language in many LGBT federal bills). Here it is:

(2) GENDER IDENTITY- The term ‘gender identity’ means the gender-related identity, appearance, or mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.

Here is the link again to the full legal details: http://bit.ly/PledgeLawDetails