SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
It's no exaggeration to say the Supreme Court's ruling will have a drastic material impact on the millions of transgender people living in the United States. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Don't Leave Equality to the Supreme Court
In 29 states, trans people can legally be denied jobs and housing because of who we are. Congress should act.
Oct 09, 2019
Are you a woman? Imagine if you were fired for wearing a skirt to work.
Are you a man? Imagine getting fired for not wearing a skirt to work.
This sounds ridiculous, right? It sounds unfair. But for many Americans, it's a reality we must face every day.
Take the case of Aimee Stephens, a Detroit funeral home employee. Aimee is transgender, a woman assigned male sex at birth.
For most of her career, she went undercover, wearing men's clothing every day and pretending to be a man. When she finally told her boss that she was in fact a woman and would like to start wearing work-appropriate women's clothing, she was fired.
In 29 states, there are no protections against workplace discrimination of this sort for transgender people like me. If I lived in Michigan like Aimee, my employer could fire me at will, just because I'm transgender. (In fact, I could also be denied housing, credit, or public accommodations.)
Facing this injustice, Aimee Stephens sued. Her case against her employer has now made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The court will decide whether firing someone because they're transgender constitutes discrimination "on the basis of sex," which would be illegal under the Civil Rights Act. If they rule in favor of Stephens, transgender Americans would finally be afforded the same protections that everyone else has as a right.
The Trump administration has argued that the Civil Rights Act doesn't protect people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But advocates have countered that it does apply, since discrimination along these lines punishes people who defy stereotypes attached to their assigned sex.
Whatever the court decides, there's no disputing that transgender people in the United States face alarmingly high rates of unemployment and poverty. In fact, we're twice as likely to live in poverty as the general population, and 30 percent of us have experienced homelessness at some point.
Against this backdrop, housing and employment discrimination are an added devastation--and in all likelihood part of the reason these numbers are so high in the first place.
So it's no exaggeration to say the Supreme Court's ruling will have a drastic material impact on the millions of transgender people living in the United States. Allowing this discrimination to continue will threaten many more with unemployment and economic hardship.
With the court's current right-wing majority, that's a real danger. But Congress could address it by explicitly legislating anti-discrimination protections -- for the workplace, housing, credit, and everything else -- for this vulnerable group.
In fact, the House of Representatives has already passed the Equality Act, which would clearly codify the inclusion of gay, lesbian, transgender, and non-binary people in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP-controlled Senate has refused to consider it.
Without this legislation, the rights of millions of Americans like me are at the mercy of this Supreme Court.
No matter how the court rules, it's the responsibility of Congress to ensure that "freedom and justice for all" includes transgender Americans, too. We need laws to prevent people like Aimee Stephens from losing their livelihoods due to employer prejudice.
We're supposed to be a free country. We're supposed to be an equal country. It's time to make it that way.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Are you a woman? Imagine if you were fired for wearing a skirt to work.
Are you a man? Imagine getting fired for not wearing a skirt to work.
This sounds ridiculous, right? It sounds unfair. But for many Americans, it's a reality we must face every day.
Take the case of Aimee Stephens, a Detroit funeral home employee. Aimee is transgender, a woman assigned male sex at birth.
For most of her career, she went undercover, wearing men's clothing every day and pretending to be a man. When she finally told her boss that she was in fact a woman and would like to start wearing work-appropriate women's clothing, she was fired.
In 29 states, there are no protections against workplace discrimination of this sort for transgender people like me. If I lived in Michigan like Aimee, my employer could fire me at will, just because I'm transgender. (In fact, I could also be denied housing, credit, or public accommodations.)
Facing this injustice, Aimee Stephens sued. Her case against her employer has now made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The court will decide whether firing someone because they're transgender constitutes discrimination "on the basis of sex," which would be illegal under the Civil Rights Act. If they rule in favor of Stephens, transgender Americans would finally be afforded the same protections that everyone else has as a right.
The Trump administration has argued that the Civil Rights Act doesn't protect people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But advocates have countered that it does apply, since discrimination along these lines punishes people who defy stereotypes attached to their assigned sex.
Whatever the court decides, there's no disputing that transgender people in the United States face alarmingly high rates of unemployment and poverty. In fact, we're twice as likely to live in poverty as the general population, and 30 percent of us have experienced homelessness at some point.
Against this backdrop, housing and employment discrimination are an added devastation--and in all likelihood part of the reason these numbers are so high in the first place.
So it's no exaggeration to say the Supreme Court's ruling will have a drastic material impact on the millions of transgender people living in the United States. Allowing this discrimination to continue will threaten many more with unemployment and economic hardship.
With the court's current right-wing majority, that's a real danger. But Congress could address it by explicitly legislating anti-discrimination protections -- for the workplace, housing, credit, and everything else -- for this vulnerable group.
In fact, the House of Representatives has already passed the Equality Act, which would clearly codify the inclusion of gay, lesbian, transgender, and non-binary people in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP-controlled Senate has refused to consider it.
Without this legislation, the rights of millions of Americans like me are at the mercy of this Supreme Court.
No matter how the court rules, it's the responsibility of Congress to ensure that "freedom and justice for all" includes transgender Americans, too. We need laws to prevent people like Aimee Stephens from losing their livelihoods due to employer prejudice.
We're supposed to be a free country. We're supposed to be an equal country. It's time to make it that way.
Are you a woman? Imagine if you were fired for wearing a skirt to work.
Are you a man? Imagine getting fired for not wearing a skirt to work.
This sounds ridiculous, right? It sounds unfair. But for many Americans, it's a reality we must face every day.
Take the case of Aimee Stephens, a Detroit funeral home employee. Aimee is transgender, a woman assigned male sex at birth.
For most of her career, she went undercover, wearing men's clothing every day and pretending to be a man. When she finally told her boss that she was in fact a woman and would like to start wearing work-appropriate women's clothing, she was fired.
In 29 states, there are no protections against workplace discrimination of this sort for transgender people like me. If I lived in Michigan like Aimee, my employer could fire me at will, just because I'm transgender. (In fact, I could also be denied housing, credit, or public accommodations.)
Facing this injustice, Aimee Stephens sued. Her case against her employer has now made it all the way to the Supreme Court.
The court will decide whether firing someone because they're transgender constitutes discrimination "on the basis of sex," which would be illegal under the Civil Rights Act. If they rule in favor of Stephens, transgender Americans would finally be afforded the same protections that everyone else has as a right.
The Trump administration has argued that the Civil Rights Act doesn't protect people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But advocates have countered that it does apply, since discrimination along these lines punishes people who defy stereotypes attached to their assigned sex.
Whatever the court decides, there's no disputing that transgender people in the United States face alarmingly high rates of unemployment and poverty. In fact, we're twice as likely to live in poverty as the general population, and 30 percent of us have experienced homelessness at some point.
Against this backdrop, housing and employment discrimination are an added devastation--and in all likelihood part of the reason these numbers are so high in the first place.
So it's no exaggeration to say the Supreme Court's ruling will have a drastic material impact on the millions of transgender people living in the United States. Allowing this discrimination to continue will threaten many more with unemployment and economic hardship.
With the court's current right-wing majority, that's a real danger. But Congress could address it by explicitly legislating anti-discrimination protections -- for the workplace, housing, credit, and everything else -- for this vulnerable group.
In fact, the House of Representatives has already passed the Equality Act, which would clearly codify the inclusion of gay, lesbian, transgender, and non-binary people in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP-controlled Senate has refused to consider it.
Without this legislation, the rights of millions of Americans like me are at the mercy of this Supreme Court.
No matter how the court rules, it's the responsibility of Congress to ensure that "freedom and justice for all" includes transgender Americans, too. We need laws to prevent people like Aimee Stephens from losing their livelihoods due to employer prejudice.
We're supposed to be a free country. We're supposed to be an equal country. It's time to make it that way.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.