A federal judge has ruled that the Library of Congress discriminated against a transgender individual when it rescinded a job offer after she disclosed that she would be transitioning from male to female.
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Download NowThe applicant was born male but was diagnosed with gender identity disorder and worked with a social worker to develop a plan for transitioning from male to female. However, before she changed her legal name or began presenting as a woman, she applied for a terrorism specialist position with the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.
She did very well on her interview, receiving the highest score of the 18 final candidates. She conducted the interview in attire that is traditionally associated with men (sport coat, tie, dress shirt, and dress pants) because she had yet to present herself as a woman on a full-time basis.
The applicant received a job offer for the position after the members of the selection committee unanimously recommended that she be offered the job.
After she was offered the job, she met with the employee responsible for hiring for that position to discuss the male-to-female transition she was going to make. The applicant told the employee that she would present as a woman on her first day of work so that it would be less disruptive in the workplace than if she first presented as a man and then as a woman.
After that discussion, the employee met with colleagues and determined that she no longer wanted to recommend the candidate to be hired for the terrorism specialist position. She called her on the phone to rescind the job offer, saying that "I've determined that you are not a good fit, not what we want."
The applicant filed a lawsuit, claiming that the Library of Congress discriminated against her because of sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In court, the Library of Congress argued that it had a number of nondiscriminatory reasons for refusing to hire her, including concerns about her ability to maintain or timely receive a security clearance, her trustworthiness, and the potential that her transition would distract her from her job. The Library of Congress also argued that a hiring decision based on transsexuality is not unlawful discrimination under Title VII.
However, the court rejected the Library of Congress's arguments, saying that several of the Library of Congress's stated reasons were pretext for discrimination.
"In refusing to hire [the applicant] because her appearance and background did not comport with the decisionmaker's sex stereotypes about how men and women should act and appear, and in response to her decision to transition, legally, culturally, and physically, from male to female, the Library of Congress violated Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination," U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson wrote.
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