Transgender Woman Returns to Georgia Legislature Job After 11th Circuit Ruling
Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who lost her legislative editor job with the Georgia Office of Legislative Counsel, is back at work now after an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that her termination violated her civil rights.
“I never should have been fired in the first place. This was a job I loved, and I was good at it,” she told the Georgia Voice.
The Atlanta-based 11th Circuit on Dec. 6 upheld a lower court ruling in Glenn’s favor. When she was hired as an editor in 2005, she was a man named Glenn Morrison. Morrison was diagnosed with gender identity disorder that year, and doctors recommended a gender transition, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Morrison began living as a woman, and in 2007 a supervisor asked about a complete gender transformation. Glenn said she intended to do so, and was fired.
“An individual cannot be punished because of his or her perceived gender nonconformity,” Judge Rosemary Barkett wrote (PDF) for the unanimous panel. “Because these protections are afforded to everyone, they cannot be denied to a transgender individual. The nature of the discrimination is the same; it may differ in degree but not in kind.”
