Making your workplace inclusive for trans employees doesn’t have to be complicated

Discrimination

Nearly half (49%) of transgender employees in the US have reported discrimination—“being fired or not hired”—based on their gender identity, compared to 28% of cisgender LGB employees, according to a 2021 UCLA study. And despite a 2020 Supreme Court decision asserting that gay, lesbian, and transgender employees are protected from discrimination based on sex, transgender people in the US continue to face a high risk of unemployment or poverty, according to recent polling from the Center for American Progress.
So what can an HR leader intent on creating an inclusive workplace do about it? The National Center for Transgender Equality is a nonprofit organization that advocates for the understanding and acceptance of transgender people throughout the US. HR Brew recently spoke with Olivia Hunt, the

EEOC Issues Guidance on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination

Discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued a technical assistance document for “Protections Against Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.” The document briefly explains the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, No. 17-1618 (S. Ct. June 15, 2020) and the EEOC’s established legal positions on sexual-orientation and gender-identity-related workplace discrimination issues.

In Bostock, the Supreme Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of “sex,” bars employers from discriminating based on an employee’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The ruling came through a set of three cases that were consolidated for oral argument. All three cases turned on the same issue: whether the phrase “sex,” as used in Title VII, includes an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The Court explained, “discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex; the first cannot happen without the second.”