Life just gets more confusing to me.
I wonder if she made millions from this. Regardless, I couldn't go to these lengths--which would be quite a long ways in my case.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/transgender_army_employee_at_r.html#incart_2boxTransgender Army employee at Redstone Arsenal wins 'historic' discrimination case
Army software quality assurance specialist Tamara Lusardi (Contributed photo/Transgender Law Center)
A transgender Army civilian at Redstone Arsenal's Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center was forced to undergo "frequent, pervasive and humiliating," gender-identity discrimination, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced Thursday.
In what's being hailed as a landmark decision, the OSC found that Tamara Lusardi, a software quality assurance specialist with AMRDEC, was restricted from using the women's bathroom and was called "sir" and referred to by her birth name by coworkers as she transitioned from male to female.
OSC, an independent federal investigating and prosecutorial agency, said the treatment violated Lusardi's rights.
"I am so grateful that justice is finally being served," Lusardi said in a statement. "As a disabled veteran, I take great pride in my role protecting our soldiers from harm. Like anyone else, I just want the freedom to be myself at work. I hope my case and this decision will help other transgender people feel safe enough to bring their full authentic selves to work. This report makes clear that we don't have to put up with being mistreated on the job just because of who we are."
According to OSC, Lusardi, an Army veteran, legally changed her name in 2010 and obtained a passport, driver's license and security clearance that identified her as female. During that time, she dressed as a woman but used a separate unisex bathroom facility at her office. When that bathroom was out of order, she would use the women's restroom, something she was later advised not to do by her supervisors.
I hope my case and this decision will help other transgender people feel safe enough to bring their full authentic selves to work.
During this same time, OSC said Lusardi was repeatedly called "he" or "sir," creating a hostile work environment, OSC said, and was given less work. She experienced this on a daily basis, serving "as a constant reminder that she was deprived of equal status, respect, and dignity in the workplace," the OSC report said.
The Army's actions, according to OSC, were "sufficiently frequent, pervasive, and humiliating to constitute discriminatory harassment. The agency's intentional limitations on (Lusardi's) restroom usage significantly changed her working conditions, as did her supervisor's repeated use of her birth name and male pronouns and her manager's targeted restriction of the content of her conversations with coworkers."
In response to the report, the Army has agreed to provide sensitivity training about working with LGBT coworkers for employees and supervisors at the AMRDEC facility.
In July, President Obama signed an executive order banning workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors and the federal government. Lusardi was represented by the California-based Transgender Law Center.
The center's Legal Director Ilona Turner praised the OSC's ruling.
"The Office of Special Counsel's report is groundbreaking in its conclusion that some of the most common forms of harassment faced by transgender people on the job should be recognized for what they are: unlawful discrimination," she said.
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