"Biological Gender" Determines Employees' Rights

[OneFinger]

As a little boy, Michael Etsitty knew he was really a girl.

 

Now 42, Etsitty's legal name is Krystal. Etsitty refers to herself with feminine pronouns, takes female hormones, wears her hair long, uses makeup and is saving her money for a sex-change operation. And her driver license lists her as a woman.

 

But officials at Utah Transit Authority, where Etsitty worked briefly as a bus driver, considered her a man and fired her for using the women's restroom.

 

U.S. District Judge David Sam - referring to Etsitty as a "she" but noting she still has male genitalia - on Friday upheld the action, agreeing that she was not the victim of sexual stereotyping.

 

In dismissing Etsitty's lawsuit against UTA, U.S. District Judge David Sam said laws prohibiting sex discrimination apply to a person's biological sex.

 

The judge ruled that transsexuals fall outside a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned discrimination against individuals who fail to meet the stereotype of their gender, such as a man who has effeminate mannerisms or a woman who behaves aggressively.

 

"There is a huge difference between a woman who does not behave as femininely as her employer thinks she should, and a man who is attempting to change his sex and appearance to be a woman," Sam wrote. "Such drastic action cannot be fairly characterized as a mere failure to conform to stereotypes."

 

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2828333

 

Very interesting story. I bet this ruling gets over-turned on appeal and eventually ends up in the Supreme Court.

[Guest Merlin]

Remember, most women do not want to share restrooms with persons with male genitalia, whether they claim they feel like women or not. Is their right of privacy and security less important than the plaintiff's right to live his fantasy?