Wednesday, June 24, 2009

New Protections for Transgender Federal Workers by Jim Rutenberg

The New York Times/ International Herald Tribune
by Jim Rutenberg Published: June 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — Lawyers for President Obama are quietly drafting first-of-their kind guidelines barring workplace discrimination against transgender federal employees, officials said Tuesday. Photo

The guidelines will be in an updated federal handbook for managers and supervisors to be distributed and posted online in the next couple of months, and they could also be included in other materials for managers. They will list transgender people — those who identify their gender differently from the information on their birth certificates — as among several groups protected by antidiscrimination laws.

Though transgender men and women are not believed to make up more than a fraction of a percent of the federal work force, their inclusion in the discrimination guidelines is seen as a breakthrough by transgender and gay rights advocates.

“The president is making a very clear statement that transgender people won’t be discriminated against,” said Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, a group that has been talking with the White House about the new provisions.

The provisions will help give transgender workers avenues within the federal government to protest a job action as discriminatory, though Ms. Keisling added, “There is also a very important symbolic value to that, from our point of view.” Read more The New York Times/ International Herald Tribune

Related links Advocate.Com Queerty Human Rights Campaign


Further reading

ENDA H.R. 2981 H.R. 2981: To prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity Read more planetransgender GovTrack.us


Gay? Get a Sex Change A new documentary turns the camera on another source of controversy in Iran: transsexuality. By Sean Kennedy An Advocate.com exclusive posted June 24, 2009


South Bend Mayor Bans Discrimination South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke today issued the first executive order in his 12 years in office, barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity for City employees or in municipal government's recruitment of prospective workers. Read more FOX28.ComSouthBend The Bloomington Beacon Center


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