Posted on 07/19/2014 11:00:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It wasn't enough that Hobby Lobby won in a landmark Supreme Courty case for employers being able to deny women reproductive healthcare coverage. Now, the conservative-led company wants to also dictate which restrooms women can use at work. That is, if you happen to be a transgender woman.
Megan Sommerville, a 16-year veteran of the arts and crafts franchise, began her transition in 2009 and had her name legally changed in 2010. But she was nevertheless recently written up at her Aurora, Ill., store when she began using the women's restroom. According to Sommerville, store managment said that she'd only be allowed to use the restroom most aligned with her gender identity under one condition: Sommerville would have to prove that she'd undergone a genital reconstructive surgery.
These alleged actions by management reinforce transphobia and cissexism by confusing the difference between sex and gender identity, and the essentialist assumption that all women must have a vagina and vice-versa for men. It also undermines the self-determination and personhood of trans people, by laughing in the face of what they've affirmed to themselves and seek to signal to the world around them about their gender identity.
That's part of the outdated ideology that Sommerville has decided to contest, by filing suit against Hobby Lobby for gender discrimination.
Sommerville also filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) in April 2011, alleging discrimination in her workplace and public accommodation. Her case was originally dismissed but the decision is now pending after the IDHR overturned it.
Oddly enough, Hobby Lobby isn’t citing religious reasons to defend prohibiting her from using the women’s restroom. No, this prejudice is right out in the open.
"Since [her transition] they still have denied me use of the women's restroom, even though my state ID [and] even the health benefits of my own company recognize me as female," Sommerville told Newsweek. She also retroactively changed the gender listed on her birth certificate. "I'm just looking to be treated equally with every other female in the company — not just in the store, but in the company. If they recognize me as female for certain things, why can't they recognize me as female for everything?"
Restoom usage has become a common, if not invasive talking point when discussing the transgender community. Most recently, California begame the first trans-inclusive state for restrooms in their public school system, which prompted swift backlash from right-wing conservatives. Such "bathroom panic" is an irrational fear that can be traced to the lack of understanding of various genders, and a belitting public fascination with what trans people have between their legs.
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
"Hobby Lobby’s taking the fairly absurd position that in order for Megan to be able to use the female facilities, she has to undergo reconstructive surgery," Sommerville’s attorney, Jacob Meister, told Mic. "Expensive and sometimes medically unfeasible, the procedure wasn’t necessary for Sommerville to change her birth certificate." Sommerville’s insurance covers her hormone treatments but it doesn’t extend to the routine doctor’s appointments needed for her transition.
Though Hobby Lobby hasn’t needed proof of Sommerville’s reconstructive surgery to cite her as female in her personal records. She’s even received support from some of her coworkers through her transition, though, not everyone has been as understanding with the pronoun shift from male to female. Hobby Lobby refuses to comment on the pending case, so it's still unclear why they're prohibiting Sommerville from using the women’s restroom.
"I just want to emphasize that I’m not asking for special treatment," Sommerville told Mic. "I’m asking for the same basic right’s that the rest of the other female employees have: To use the restroom at my place of employment."
Restrooms have historically not been safe for trans and gender non-conforming people. There are numerous instances of discrimination at public restrooms due to irrational fear of restrooms not being exclusively cisgender spaces. The need for safe places for trans people to use the restroom prompted one trans woman to start a mobile app called Refuge Restrooms. Developed by Teagan Widmer, the app that allows trans people to find restrooms in public places that have been pre-approved by their peers.
This issue won’t be resolved quickly and the need for trans inclusive restrooms is a matter of safety, suppoerters say. "Refuge Restrooms is a web application that indexes and maps safe restrooms for transgender, intersex, and gender-nonconforming individuals." Widmer told The Advocate. "At its core, its goal is to be a place where you can go, type in an address and find the nearest refuge when you really need a place to use the bathroom.”
As for Sommerville's case, it's yet another instance of Hobby Lobby and right-wing conservative companies attempting to take too many steps into the lives of their employees.
Transphobia (or less commonly transprejudice, or trans-misogyny when referring to transphobia directed toward trans women as it intersects with misogyny) is a range of antagonistic attitudes and feelings against transsexuality and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender identity
Now, I’m really confused
I can’t comprehend. Too much transwhatever!!!
I was reading a thread on HuffPo a while back, and there was a poster ranting about how you’d never know a “Trans woman” was anything other than a woman unless she told you. I left the post alone, but I had to SMH. I have yet to see a trans type that didn’t look just plain awful (including the one in the pic you’ve posted). The dude in that pic couldn’t even pass for a drag queen.
This man is an Exhibitionist.
And self-righteous about it.
“Transgendered”?
Send. Em all to Moliki,its not just for lepers anymore.
OK, here’s a good policy:
Got a penis? Men’s room only.
Got a vagina? Ladies room only.
Fascinating.
No attempt at all made here to prove that "cis-gender ideology" is scientifically inaccurate or wrong or immoral, simply an assertion that it is "outdated" and therefore must be abandoned by all immediately.
I think I'll start a movement to declare the law of gravity to be outdated...
Mark the doors XX and XY. Problem solved.
If a lunatic glues a horn to his forehead and believes he is a unicorn, we should not be forced to share his delusion, or even to pretend to share his delusion.
A society that mandates respect for the delusions of the insane, is a society nearing the abyss.
If I saw a man in the ladies’ bathroom I’d exit immediately especially if he was in drag. They have a mental illness and demanding that we accept their “reality” is dangerous for everyone involved.
...where is the triple mega barf alert on this...?
My friend is creeped out by it (as are several other actual women who work there), but the bosses don’t seem to intend to even bring it up, much less do anything about it.
...any boss that does anything about this will shortly be sitting at his/her exit interview...
The first sentence is a lie. That stopped me.
Something like this happened at work about six years ago.
“Glenn” had always been an odd duck. He wasn’t an overt flaming phag but he definitely had bizarre behaviors that were clearly inappropriate for the workplace. His flirtations should have resulted in termination but since he seemed to prefer blacks none of the office drones said anything. The idiots I work for are hyper-PC so they tend to stand logic and good sense on its head and management turned a blind eye. That good old “diversity is our strength” BS.
So there came a time when the entire workgroup was called together for a meeting. It was very hastily called and very secretive. Once assembled the managers announced that they had some important news of a sensitive nature to discuss with the group and that there would be no interruptions, no comments, and (above all else) no laughter. Then they announced that Glenn was going on a three week “vacation” and that upon return Glenn would be “Gwen”.
One guy made a joke and was suspended on the spot. The managers then revealed that “Gwen” would continue in the same job and insisted that “nothing would change”. With the obvious threat of termination that was a lie. They then opened the floor for questions and of course no one said a thing.
When “Gwen” came back it was like seeing “Mrs. Doubtfire” up close. “Gwen” attempted a falsetto characterized voice that only heaped absurdity on absurdity. “Gwen” was now a cartoonish character that begged belittlement - and there were plenty of jokes but all done in whispers like kids passing notes in elementary school. Nearly everyone tried to ignore it and go about their business but “Gwen” had a point to prove. One day “Gwen” accused one of the guys of staring at her breasts. The guy was horrified and indignant and totally grossed out. He immediately asked for - and received a transfer to a different department.
Almost immediately the bathroom issue reared its ugly head. The female employees refused to share the women’s room with “Gwen”. There was talk of lawsuits and much drama. They ended up making an accommodation to “Gwen” of a personal bathroom - but even that extreme concession didn’t satisfy “Gwen” who insisted that not only did there need to be tolerance, but acceptance of “Gwen’s” behavior as well.
Three quarters of the group put in for transfers. There was massive absenteeism. Fortunately the nature of my work took me on the road most of the time (thank God!) so I only heard about the skirmishes 2nd hand.
Then one day I came into the office and heard that “Gwen” had abruptly quit. Apparently “Gwen” couldn’t take the “intolerance” and went to work for the city instead. It was amazing the change in tone and tenor from one day to the next, and amazing how much (negative) affect one person could have on an entire office.
And I always thought bathrooms were designed for different aspects of Personal Plumbing.
Fire the IT
They really push to make it seem that way. I would add going after welfare checks.
As for the whole bathroom thing, it makes me want to puke. I don’t find people’s excretory functions attractive at all. I don’t see why someone has some issue with the fact that if you have parts that hang out from your groin at birth, you are a male, and if you have the opposite, you are a female. I don’t see what’s so offensive if people don’t believe your delusion. I mean, it’s not as if plenty of other religions have to cry their hearts out in my face because I don’t believe their side of things, or because they think I don’t believe their side of things.
me thinks HL need a WHOLE NEW potential employee screening program in their HR department...
OK, here’s a good policy:
Got a penis? Men’s room only.
Got a vagina? Ladies room only.
This is where the liberals see the problems beginning. By making such “binary” gender assumptions, you are discriminating against the Trans-whatever peoples.
Shouldn’t they have 56 different restrooms? After all, we live in a world in which Facebook recognized 56 different genders..........
You identify with the sex you were born. A man knows he’s a man and a woman knows she’s a woman.
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