January 16, 2013 - Texas Workforce Commission

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1 EEOC applied in this opinion. The stereotype is that
2 an individual, be it a man or a woman, should not
3 expect to change to the opposite sex through the
4 transgender procedure. And by applying that
5 stereotype and then acting on that stereotype in an
6 employment action in this case against an applicant
7 for employment constitutes discrimination because of
8 sex.
9 I did want to point out what I thought
10 was a very interesting part of the rationale in the
11 EEOC opinion, and this is at the top of Page 12,
12 "Gender is no different from religion. Assume that an
13 employee considers herself Christian and identifies as
14 such but assume that an employer finds out the
15 employee's parents are Muslim believes that the
16 employee should therefore be Muslim and terminates the
17 employee on that basis. No one would doubt that such
18 an employer discriminated on the basis of religion.
19 There would be no need for the employee who
20 experienced the adverse employment action to
21 demonstrate that the employer acted on the basis of
22 some religious stereotype. Although clearly
23 discomfort with the choice made by the employee with
24 regard to religion would presumably be at the route of
25 employer's actions, but for purposes of establishing a