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Labor & Employment Law – 11/19/07
Court dodges whether sex stereotyping theory applies to transsexuals
The Tenth Circuit Court Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a transsexual employee’s Title VII claim, choosing not to decide whether discrimination based on an employee’s failure to conform to sex stereotypes always constitutes discrimination “because of sex” and whether such a claim may extend Title VII protections to transsexuals who act and appear as a member of the opposite sex. The plaintiff, who was a male-to-female transsexual, worked as a bus operator for a state transit authority. She alleged that she was terminated because she was transsexual and because she failed to conform to her employer’s expectations of stereotypical male behavior. (Etsitty v Utah Transit Auth, 10thCir, 90 EPD ΒΆ42,994)