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Lambda Legal, Freedom to Work Resolve EEOC Complaint on Behalf of Maryland Transgender Woman

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July 15, 2013
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Lambda Legal and Freedom to Work have reached a settlement on behalf of a transgender woman employed by a government contractor in Maryland. The woman filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and alleged that she was subjected to physical and verbal harassment in the workplace over a two-year period.

Co-workers also allegedly made comments such as "tranny," “drag queen,” and “faggot.” 

Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office in Atlanta, says:

Slowly but surely, we are gaining recognition of the rights of LGBT employees, but this case shows that employers and employees need laws that spell out gender identity and sexual orientation protections specifically, to help prevent discrimination in the first place.

We need action by the 113th Congress to pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), and even more immediately, President Obama should sign the executive order banning LGBT discrimination by companies that profit from federal contracts. That executive order should have broad support across the political spectrum, since federal dollars should neither fund discrimination nor go to employers whose personnel and productivity suffer because discrimination and harassment are tolerated.

Although denying admission of any wrongdoing, the government contractor agreed to re-publicize its non-discrimination policies and conduct anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training at its facility, including a focus on transgender and other LGBT issues. In light of the constructive steps taken to move past this episode by this contractor, and because our emphasis is on a systemic resolution to the problem of LGBT discrimination in federal contractor workplaces, Freedom to Work and Lambda Legal are not publicizing the name of their client or this particular government contractor. 

Learn more about Transgender Workplace Rights.