Iowa: Transgender issues in the workplace

[Ayla]

Jan 2, 2016 at 3:00 pm
What is a “transgendered” person? Is a transgendered person protected from discrimination and harassment under Iowa law?

Transgender individuals are people with a gender identity that is different from the biological sex assigned to them at birth. Someone who is born male but who identifies as female is a transgender person and a woman.

Similarly, a person born female but who identifies as male is a transgender person and a man.

Effective 2007, gender identity and sexual orientation became protected classes under Iowa Code Chapter 216. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission similarly has found that transgender discrimination is discrimination on the basis of “sex,” as Title VII bars discrimination not only on the basis of biological sex but because of gender stereotyping, as well.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a discrimination charge with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission on behalf of a transgendered woman against a Des Moines hotel for its alleged treatment of her when she tried to check in.

According to her complaint, front-desk employees gave her “looks of disgust,” avoided eye contact and took over an hour to check her in. Other, non-transgendered guests arrived and allegedly checked in within five minutes.

Finally, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission recently issued two rulings permitting transgendered women the right to use public women’s restrooms. On the other hand, an administrative law judge ruled that a transgendered woman did not have a right to use a female locker room at the Burlington YMCA.

What should Iowa employers know about this subject? Here are several tips:

www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/law-column-transgender-issues-in-the-workplace-20160102   

[Deleted]

This is a good article, explaining as it does how transpeople are to be treated in various situations.  At the risk of sounding picky, here's one little thing I don't like:

Transgender individuals are people with a gender identity that is different from the biological sex assigned to them at birth. Someone who is born male but who identifies as female is a transgender person and a woman.

The first sentence is OK--although I personally would change "gender identity" to "gender orientation".  It's this word "identity" that's the problem.  As in the second sentence, "Someone who is born male but who identifies as female . . ."  This is incorrect.  I was not born male.  You can say I was born transgender if you like.  That's OK.  But when you say, "Someone was born male", you're referring to their anatomy, and you are in effect saying that's what really counts.

This is an approach our opponents take: you were really born male.  That's what you really are.  You only identify as female.  And what does that mean?  You can identify as anything.  That doesn't mean you are that.  Just because you think you're something doesn't mean you are that.  Transpeople are idiots, transpeople are sick.

Which is why we hear stuff like, "If I think I'm an elephant, am I an elephant?"  "If I identify as cocker spaniel, does that make me a cocker spaniel?"  And so on.

Why not say I was born female, since I'm a female soul?  Why do we see the physical side of things as more important?  I'm not a female soul because "I identify as female."  I'm a female soul because I'm a female soul.