The Library of Congress has lost a major discrimination case brought by a former special forces commander. Diane Schroer (formerly David Schroer) was hired as a senior terrorism analyst, but then denied the position when he informed the Library of Congress that he intended to have a sex change operation. The opinion below is an important victory for transgender rights and a baffling decision by the Justice Department to defend such a clearly discriminatory act.
The decision was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge James Robinson who held: “The evidence established that the Library was enthusiastic about hiring David Schroer — until she disclosed her transsexuality. The Library revoked the offer when it learned that a man named David intended to become, legally, culturally and physically, a woman named Diane. This was discrimination ‘because of … sex.’ ”
Schroer asked her future boss to lunch to disclose her plans for the operation. The next day, the job was rescinded.
The court will next determine damages.
It is remarkable that the Administration would fight such a clear act of discrimination. It would suggest that policy that transgender people are barred from federal employment. It once again raises questions of the ideologues still in control of the Justice Department, which could have scuttled the case in favor of a settlement. It is unclear whether Library will have to file this one under “The Library of Congress’ Fight for Discrimination” or simply “Remarkably Moronic Legal Decisions in the Twenty-First Century.” Perhaps a cross index?
For the opinion, click Transgender opinion
For the full story, click here.
RP2008,
When the employer is the federal government, they have no right to discriminate for any reason. Their property rights are the collective rights of the taxpayers who fund the agency, and as such can’t be exclusionary towards any person.
This is a huge blow against property rights. We still have the right to own property, but how about control over said property?
You know you lost your freedom when the government can tell you who to hire. Cases like this are destroying property rights.
Employers have the right to choose who to hire based on their interests. Not what the government wants.
One can make the case that as a government position this rulling is suitable, since government is expected to treat all citizens equally.
The problem is that socialist lawyers and judges will use this rulling to attack all employers who dare tell big brother they do not control their property.
CMM,
I often agree with you, but on this one I have to state that in Bush’s regime or world you might be right. However, under the rule of law, anyone, even the President should be able to have a sex change without political problems. Now, I am not sitting here with my head in the sand. He would have problems with a lot of people who have their religous blinders on, but that is why we have Constitutional rights and protections. To protect those that want to be different. Without those protections that Georege W. and his cronies have been slowly and not so slowly eradicating, we are all lost. This judge correctly recognized that changing one’s sex via surgical procedures is protected and needs protection. Only the over politicized Justice Department under Bush/Cheney could bring this action in the first place.
I am making a point. I know its not popular but it nonetheless needs to be considered.
And you know, and I know, that if Barack Obama suddenly announced he was going to have a sex change operation, his mental fitness to be President would be challenged, and rightfully so.
Its one thing to want society to accept something as radical as a sex change operation.
Its another thing to ask society to be lead by someone who is so mentally uncomfortable in their identity that they’d undergo radical surgery to change their gender.
The govt lost this one, but I’m not sure they should have.
Had your fun, didn’t you, Cro Magnum ‘man’?
Let me put it another way.
If this was the job this guy was applying for, was President of the United States, and he announced after recieving his parties nomination that he was going to have a sex change operation, … would anyone here doubt that his mental condition would be put into question?
If Barak Obama suddenly announced he was going to have a sex change operation, submitting to voluntary castration because inside, he felt he was really a woman “trapped in a mans body”, would it be unreasonable for the powers that be, and the people for that matter, to question his mental fitness at that time?
Hazumu Osaragi
1, September 20, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I can not understand your anxiety and revulsion towards transsexuals.
I cannot understand your need to create emotions and motivations that I never suggested nor implied.
😐
Perhaps you’re still woosy from the anasthesia?
Hazumu Osaragi
1, September 20, 2008 at 5:30 pm
. Just as you can’t understand my need to transition (or ‘decision’, as you called it,)
So it wasn’t a decision?
You didn’t consciously choose to undego the operation?
😐
Someone held you down did they?
Hazumu Osaragi
1, September 20, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Cro Magnum Man said:
You have called me, as well as COL Schroer and at least approximately 150,000 Americans who have transitioned and had Gender Reassignment Surgery, ‘mentally unbalanced’.
No. I have not.
I implied it was “reasonable” to question someones mental stability at that point.
In fact, if you’d honestly report what I wrote, instead of becoming self righteously indignant and fabricating straw positions for me, you’d see that I clearly stated the opposite.
I said:
It doesn’t mean people who do it are crazy
So your straw accusation is thus dismantled.
Hazumu Osaragi
1, September 20, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Cro Magnum Man said:
I’m not deciding for you. If you do not ever feel the need for undergoing gender transition and reassignment, I will fight valiantly to make sure you never have to undergo such a procedure against your will, ever
Don’t trouble yourself there. I’m sure I’ll be capable of “fighting valiantly” for myself on that one.
Mercie
1, September 20, 2008 at 5:00 pm
WHOA, Cro Magnum Man! Are you serious? You are speaking from a very ignorant place, I’m afraid. Even if it were true that transgenders persons suffer from mental health issues, this does not preclude them from being excellent employees. Many people who have mental health issues learn to manage their condition and have successful, brilliant careers
Why do you have to call me ignorant? I think its a valid question to wonder about the stability of a person who is making such a radical decision to physically mutate their bodies right down to voluntary self castration.
While it might be acceptable in society to do such things, is it wrong for the government to at least question their mental state.
As for your statements of the mentally ill having successful brilliant careers, while that may or may not be so I don’t think those careers are supposed to include leaders in national security.
Cro Magnum Man said:
“But transgender is a decision, and a questionable one at that. To be brought to the decision in ones own thinking that radical deformative surgery to remove functioning sex organs and replace or mangle them such as to create a new body and thus appear to be of another gender, does at least raise the question as to ones mental health.”
I’m not deciding for you. If you do not ever feel the need for undergoing gender transition and reassignment, I will fight valiantly to make sure you never have to undergo such a procedure against your will, ever.
You have called me, as well as COL Schroer and at least approximately 150,000 Americans who have transitioned and had Gender Reassignment Surgery, ‘mentally unbalanced’. Just as you can’t understand my need to transition (or ‘decision’, as you called it,) I can not understand your anxiety and revulsion towards transsexuals. I just acknowledge that it it exists, it is fairly prevalent, and it is a danger I must face each and every day for the rest of my life.
In most cases, the transition is supervised by a medical professional who has experience in gender issues. A psychological assessment is performed to assure that there are no co-morbid issues — the ‘question as to ones mental health’ you mentioned. There are some mental health issues that contra-indicate transition, and the medical team will try and resolve those to see if it also resolves the patients’ need to transition. There are some ‘mental health’ issues, though, which are resolved by the very act of transitioning, because the person is no longer living in a gender role to which they are unsuited.
Cro Magnum Man, your ‘mental health’ argument is but a pretext.
The rate of efficacy of transition to treat Gender Disphoria is at least 98%. Less than 2% do not benefit from it. Please provide me with a comparable rate of success for the treatment of any other mental health condition (lobotomy doesn’t count, as lobotomized zombies are unable to asses their quality of life.)
You talk about mental anguish of the decision. I will talk about the relief of making the decision to begin transition. The best metaphor would be that my life before was like a black-and white movie, devoid of color. That was my world. Outwardly, I was ‘well adjusted’, but internally I felt like a phony-f#<%. I was successful in wht I was doing, but empty inside. After making the decision to transition, it felt as if color were slowly seeping into the movie of my life — I was noticing and appreciating things which were denied to me before by the strain of maintaining a male persona that was in fact alien to me. Friends and relatives noticed my improved demeanor, even though the outward signs of feminization had not yet asserted themselves.
Transition was rough, due to the many negative reactions I endured from those who expressed hostility to my differentness. But those who accepted me and even celebrated my change the courage I displayed to them in doing so were in the majority.
My body is male, that’s a fact. My spirit is female. The proof in that is the ease at which I shed the male persona and allowed the true me, long repressed, to finally be.
Hazumu Osaragi
WHOA, Cro Magnum Man! Are you serious? You are speaking from a very ignorant place, I’m afraid. Even if it were true that transgenders persons suffer from mental health issues, this does not preclude them from being excellent employees. Many people who have mental health issues learn to manage their condition and have successful, brilliant careers!
JT, excellent response to Informed American!
I have to admit I’m torn here. Not a popular place to be no doubt, but I’m torn nonetheless.
While discriminating on sexual preference is one thing (i.e. gays, lesbians, etc), there does to me seem to be at least a modicum of credibility to the question of mental health.
We’re not talking about discriminating on someones natural sexual prefernece, or someones race, gender, age, etc. All matters considered outside of a persons control, and thus intrinsic to the person and thus not to be factored in.
But transgender is a decision, and a questionable one at that. To be brought to the decision in ones own thinking that radical deformative surgery to remove functioning sex organs and replace or mangle them such as to create a new body and thus appear to be of another gender, does at least raise the question as to ones mental health.
People who undergoe these operations invariably report feelings of being “trapped” in the wrong body. There is much mental anguish and struggle here, and all of that at least in my mind, allows for the question as to their current mental stability. It doesn’t mean people who do it are crazy, but it does bring into question their mental state at the time the decision is made and during the procedures.
I’m not siding with the Bush regime here (God forbid), but I am wondering if there isn’t at least a modicum of reason in such a decision.
Informed American:
It is the Justice Department that must agree to litigate and defend such a case. Your point would be better in arguing that the Justice Department should litigate on behalf of Congress in the cases of the criminal contempt of Bush officials. In that circumstance, the Justice Department is expected to present the cases to a grand jury in a long tradition with Congress. In the very least, AG Mukasey established that he will make an independent judgment whether to approve litigation on behalf of a congressional entity. In a case where the LOC is seeking to defend a policy that allows transgender citizens to be fired due to their sexual preference, the DOJ must make an independent judgment as to whether this is the policy of the executive branch.
JT
I would file this under Diane’s Dewey Decimal.
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/summaries/default.htm
Informed American,
Are you kidding? The Justice Department brought the charges and they are obviously under the control of the Bush regime. Have you been sleeping the last 8 years? Did you not see Prof. Turley’s earlier posting about the woman who dumped or spilled the Coke was being prosecuted by this same Justice Department? You may want to actually look at some facts before posting this kind of stuff. I have to echo Charity’s comments that this person’s expertise wasn’t removed when the operation was completed. And this person was a former US Special Forces officer and the US government treats the person like a terrorist. Congrats to Diane.
I’m so glad to hear Ms. Schroer won her case! Keith Olbermann reported on this story a few weeks ago. He made the very excellent point that shouldn’t hiring terrorism analysts simply rely on the best PERSON for the job, whether male, female, gay, straight or transgendered? Ms. Schroer’s expertise in her field didn’t GO AWAY when she had her surgery. This is all about her employers being squicked about OMG WE TOUCHED HIS HAND WE’RE GONNA GET TEH GHEY.
When the ‘Library of Congress’ is being sued, the title of the article should be ‘Congress with Lowest Approval Rating in History Loses Major Case of Transgender Discrimination at Library of Congress.’ Remember that the Congress is a separate entity from the executive branch, which you refer to as the Bush Administration. Truly it is the Democratic majority House of Congress that is to blame for this incident; don’t try to pander this off on the Republicans. We should be calling this the Reid Administration.
Also, the equal employment opportunity act states that decisions should not be made on one’s ‘Race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation.’ The library of Congress did not violate this. David is a man. He was born as a man, and this status will not change. However, Dave did have an operation to alter his physical appearance to look like a women. This does not change his true ‘sex’, and therefore should not be considered within this law.
If a model were to alter his/her physical appearance by getting tattoos across his/her face, you can sure believe they would lose their job. Just because David altered his appearance by losing his penis and adding breasts, there should be no difference.