According to the U.S. Transgender Survey (http://www.ustranssurvey.org/), 30% of employed trans people report being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment in the workplace each year. Did you know there may be a legal remedy for that? It stems from the federal Title VII prohibition against sex discrimination. A well-established principle is that this law prohibits sexual harassment on the job. Although the Supreme Court is currently considering changing this interpretation (see https://www.vox.com/2019/10/2/20883827/supreme-court-lgbtq-discrimination-title-vii-civil-rights-gay-trans-queer to learn more), the law has long been seen as outlawing sexual harassment. Of anyone, including trans people.
But is sexual harassment the right name for when a trans person is discriminated against on the job? And if a case is sexual harassment, what can a trans worker do about it? Those are the questions FORGE answers in a suite of new materials on sexual harassment of transgender people. A dedicated webpage on FORGE’s main website — https://forge-forward.org/publications-resources/sex-harassment/ — includes a trans-specific recorded webinar, resource handout, and fact sheets that can help demystify this confusing area of the law. If you are in a position to educate via your social media, it also includes a prefabricated social media toolkit that includes illustrated and image-described posts for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Not every trans employee who has been mistreated will be interested in or able to bring legal action against their employer, but no one can access that option if they don’t know about.
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