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Claudia Torres
Katie Young
English 1010
3 May, 2014
Transgender
Transgender people are not seen as equal members. I chose to write about this topic because I
see this as a completely unreasonable and a narrow minded mentality. I think a lot more should be done
for them and they have done nothing wrong to deserve being treated like this. Everywhere they go they
are met with discrimination and injustice because they are different and stand outside of the norm. The
Law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which is a law to protect people from discrimination at the
work place does not even mention LGBT people. Jane was let go from her job as engineer at Broing
Company when her decision to under go male-to-female reassignment surgery was too much for
Broings male oriented work place to handle. When a transgender person ends up in jail they are treated
even worse, staff doesnt even take into account their gender identity and will place them in anywhere
with no concern for their safety .Theirs nothing anyone will do to help them much like in our society.
No federal law has ever been passed that specifically protects lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender people (LGBT). In Human Rights The Law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits
discrimination of employees or job applicants based on their race, color, sex, or national origin, but
nowhere does it mention sexual orientation or gender identity. Many different bills have been
proposed to include (LGBT) people in this law for protection against discrimination but they have all
been denied for about 40 years..Many cases were taken to court and many were lost but some were
won. For example in Warehouse vs. Hopkins, Ann Hopkins was denied partnership at an accounting firm
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because she did not dress or act feminine enough. Ann was told to dress, talk, and walk more
femininely, to style her hair, to wear make up, and jewelry. Ann won this case not because she was
being discriminated against for being a transgender but because she was being stereotyped and told to
be more of a woman. Under the Civil Right Acts of 1964 (LGBT) people are not protected but under
certain circumstances they are, as long as they dont file for discrimination against (LGBT). I dont
understand why they have a law that protects people of sex, race, color and place of origin against
discrimination but not (LGBT) Do they not deserve protection? What makes it ok to discriminate against
them? I feel like our society is scared to let people that are different be equal to them that itll somehow
diminish them.
The jail system does not have a policy regarding where to place transgender or (LGBT) people.
They are rarely placed according to their gender identity. Staff is sometimes told to place them
according to their birth assigned sex, or by their external genitalia. This means that most will be placed
in the mens facilities regardless of their gender expression or how feminine their external appearance
is. Even if they have undergone surgery and now have breasts. For a transgender being placed in mens
facilities means that they will be targeted for harassment and rape. For a transgender in prison to have
access to hormone treatment, or psychological help it is close to impossible they must have been
diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder prior to being placed in jail. So many inmates are denied
hormone and psychological help that they resort to extreme behavior and self harm. Some inmates will
threaten or attempt suicide, or self- castration. The Imprisoned Trans Body in Social Justice, Their
behavior can be rationalized; it is brought on by the extreme violent and repressive conditions of
incarceration. By the jail system not having a policy on where to place Trans and LGBT people they are
allowing the rape and harassment that is inflicted on them. I think the jail system should put the (LGBT)
people in with the gender they identify with.
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Jane Doe vs. Broing Company was a case where Jane was going to go into the process of sex
change surgery. She was told by her surgeon she had to meet a couple of prerequisites two of them
being therapy and to live full-time in the social role she identified with for a year. She notified her
workplace of her upcoming sex change surgery. When she showed up dressed as a women managent
did not like it they spoke to her and told her she had to dress in neutral attire. When she failed to
abide by these flimsy and not very detailed guidelines she was fired. When she took the case to court
Jane lost the case because it was too much effort to accommodate the needs of the individual with the
rest of the workforce. Doe had failed to cooperate and Broing Comp had every right to regulate dress to
preserve company workability. Broing Company based their case on her attire. The company would not
function well if Anne was dressed as a woman instead of her birth sex male. Anne would be too much of
a distraction. I disagree with the ruling of the court to me its ridiculous that they cared so much about
how she dressed.
The treatment of transgender and (LGBT) people is very unfair. This topic is really sensitive its
about what people think and feel inside, but the more research I did in the scholarly journals the colder
and more political it became. It turned into work laws and court cases all rejecting transgender
individuals as transgender they didnt accept the change and based their decisions on different ideals. As
I did research I found that my own college offers classes to learn more about (LGBT) people and support
groups for (LGBT) people. They want to change the sex they were born with because they feel like its
not right that a mistake was made there is no way for me to know if this is true or not but they feel it
inside they know but we try to fix them with therapy and psychiatrist when we can just accept them. I
cant even begin to understand their desperation when they not look like what they really feel. It would
be as if I woke up and my body reflected the opposite sex I would want support and help I would need it
as they need I now. Transgender people do not get fair treatment anywhere from the college educated
engineers to the violent inmates of prisons.
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Vitulli, Elias.Social Justice. Vol. 37(1) (2010) 53-68.Web. Publi. Social Justice/Global Options 11
April 2014
Joslin, Courtney. Human Rights: Protection for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Employees
Under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Vol. 31, No. 3 (Summer 2004), pp. 14-15 Publ. American Bar
10 April 2014
Jane Doe v. Boeing Company: Transsexuality and Compulsory Gendering in Corporate Capitalism Polly
Reed Myers Feminist Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3, SEX AND SURVEILLANCE (Fall 2010), pp. 493-517 Published
by: Feminist Studies, Inc.