Employment Protection

There is a case before the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) about employment discrimination against a trans-woman,

Employment Commission: Cabela’s Likely Discriminated Against Transgender Employee
Thinkprogess
By Zack Ford
June 23, 2014

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has determined that Cabela’s, an outdoors and sporting goods store, likely discriminated a transgender employee at its Pennsylvania store. According to the Philadelphia Gay News, the EEOC made its determination back in March.

Kate Lynn Blatt has been fighting Cabela’s for seven years now. She similarly won a favorable ruling from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission back in 2010. Both commissions found that Blatt was probably discriminated against because of the way she was treated — in particular, because she was denied access to the women’s restroom.
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According to the EEOC decision, it was unlawful for Cabela’s to inquire about Blatt’s medical history or “to subject her to any medical or visual examination as a pre-condition to use the women’s restroom. Requiring this type of documentation is a form of discrimination.”

Management told her to use the unisex bathroom which was located in another part of the store or use the men’s bathroom. The Philadelphia Gay News reported that,

“It was unlawful for [Cabela’s] to inquire into [Blatt’s] surgeries or medical procedures that she underwent or to subject her to any medical or visual examination as a pre-condition to use the women’s restroom. Requiring this type of documentation is a form of discrimination,” the EEOC stated.

When I moderated a forum with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities one of the points that the lawyers made is businesses must treat everyone equally, so by requiring her to submit medical documentation in order to use the women’s bathroom she was being treated differently.