Three judges sitting on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today appeared to side with transgender woman Vandy Beth Glenn, who was fired from her job as a legislative editor for the Georgia General Assembly after she informed her boss she was transitioning full-time to a woman.
"We have direct evidence of intentional discrimination," said Judge Bill Pryor.
Richard Sheinis, representing the state, argued that if Glenn was to win this case, transgender people would become a "protected class."
"That's right," Pryor and Judge Rosemary Barkett answered, almost simultaneously.
Pryor told Sheinis if he wanted to change the outcome, he should "go talk to Congress."
U.S. Court of Appeals hears arguments in Ga. transgender woman's employment discrimination case today
Documentary of trans man with ovarian cancer part of monthly LGBT film series
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in the federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a Georgia transgender woman who was fired from her state job after informing her employer she was transitioning from male to female.
Vandy Beth Glenn, represented by nonprofit LGBT legal organization Lambda Legal, sued the state of Georgia after she was fired in 2007 as a legislative editor for the Georgia General Assembly.
In July 2010 a federal judge ruled the state illegally discriminated against Glenn and in August the judge ordered she be reinstated back to her job. During the appeals process, however, Glenn has been receiving her 2007 salary but has not been able to return to her job.
As dozens gather on the steps of Georgia Capitol each Nov. 20, names are read aloud, each followed by a single chime of a bell ringing out into the cold night.
The gathering is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil, and the names are of transgender people who have died due to violence or discrimination. The bell is a stark reminder that some people want others who are “different” to be forgotten. Forever.
“This is the most emotional part of the vigil to me,” says Tracee McDaniel, founder and executive director of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation, Inc., and organizer of Atlanta’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“These people are deceased. We memorialize those individuals by reciting their names — their families don’t want to remember them, others don’t want to remember them. We are making sure their names and their memories are remembered,” McDaniel says.
Annual memorial service tonight at Georgia State Capitol
Film explores relationship between father, transgender child
There were champagne toasts and rounds of applause as the World Professional Association for Transgender Health released on Sept. 25 its newest Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People at a symposium at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta.
WPATH revision committee chair Eli Coleman launched the 7th version of the standards of care to some 300 people who attended the symposium as part of a partnership with the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association and the Southern Comfort Conference, the largest transgender conference in the nation that takes place annually in Atlanta.
WPATH was formerly named the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association to honor one of the earliest doctors to work with transsexuals. The organization provides comprehensive ethical guidelines concerning the care of transsexual, transgender and gender nonconforming people.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention announced today — National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day — that is is awarding $55 million over five years to 34 community-based organizations, including AID Atlanta and Positive Impact.
The grants amount to approximately $300,000 per organization each year and will be used to expand HIV prevention services for young gay and bisexual men of color, transgender youth of color, and their partners.
AID Atlanta will receive $381,888 per year over five years and Positive Impact will receive $250,000 per year over five years, according to a spokesperson from the CDC.