[Commentary] [USA] The EEOC and Sissies Like Me: How the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Made the Case for a United LGBT Movement

[Stephanie Stevens]

Huffington Post, USA


Mark Daniel Snyder

Communications Manager, Transgender Law Center

The EEOC and Sissies Like Me: How the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission Made the Case for a United LGBT Movement

Posted: 05/07/2012 5:07 pm


I had never heard of the EEOC before my coworker said we were hoping
for a ruling from them that would protect transgender people under
Title VII, the law that prohibits employment discrimination based on
race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. I asked around, and
most of my friends had never heard of it, either.

Let me break it down. The EEOC interprets and enforces employment
anti-discrimination laws. They're one of those super-important
governmental agencies that many people never hear about until an issue
like this comes up for an individual or community. Take a look at
their website <http://wwww.eeoc.gov/> , and you'll get a sense of all
the work they do to ensure equality in the workplace.

When they finally did issue the ruling that trans people are protected
by Title VII, everyone here at the Transgender Law Center was
ecstatic. For the first time ever transgender people throughout the
country can file discrimination complaints at their local EEOC offices
knowing that they are protected by federal law.

What struck me personally about the ruling was how broad-reaching and
how eloquently it explained the connections between gender and
sexuality that so many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people struggle to
make. "The term 'gender,'" says the ruling
<http://www.eeoc.gov/decisions/0120120821%20Macy%20v%20DOJ%20ATF.txt>
, "encompasses not only a person's biological sex but also the
cultural and social aspects associated with masculinity and
femininity."

A few years ago I was one of the few proud sissies in a documentary
film called The Butch Factor. In the film man after man talked about
the pressures he felt, both within the gay community and beyond, to
bulk up his muscles and present himself as masculine. Some of them put
down feminine folks like me, while others noted how much courage it
takes for a feminine gay man or genderqueer person to live
authentically.

I know that when I was severely bullied in high school, it was about
my feminine gender expression. And I know that when a company doesn't
want to hire someone because that person is transgender or
genderqueer, it's because that person is in some way defying the
employer's rigid, and may I say outdated, gender rules and
stereotypes.

The EEOC's ruling makes the case for feminine men, butch women, and
really everybody who may be discriminated against because he or she is
not behaving in a way that conforms to stereotypes about gender to
unite in our cause for full equality. It connects the dots between
homophobia, transphobia, and sexism.

With more transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the media
than ever before, we are living in an extraordinary teachable moment
for the LGBT community to begin to change the narrative about gender
in the United States. Now is the time to talk about how rigid gender
stereotypes not only divide the queer community but encourage bullying
behavior, create a society of boys with pent-up rage, fuel sexist toy
commercials, and feed the consumerism that relies on our obsession
with achieving unrealistic body ideals.

In making the case for why it has our backs, the EEOC made the case
for us all to have each other's backs, as well. Let's get to it!

For more information about this ruling and the case that sparked it,
visit transgenderlawcenter.org <http://www.transgenderlawcenter.org/>
.


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