SAN FRANCISCO - In what may be the first legal action of its kind in California, a Cameron Park transgender person is alleging that co-workers and supervisors harassed her and tried to force her out of her job after she switched genders.Posted on 04/04/2006 7:52:50 AM PDT by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO - In what may be the first legal action of its kind in California, a Cameron Park transgender person is alleging that co-workers and supervisors harassed her and tried to force her out of her job after she switched genders.
In an interview Monday, Danielle Ryan described the hostile work environment that she claims developed at the South Natomas office of the international engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. A computer technology specialist, Ryan said incidents began 15 months ago, after she announced that she considered herself a woman and would start wearing women's clothing to work.
Ryan, 44, contends that for much of last year, co-workers bumped into her or made derogatory comments. She said she was eventually told by company officials that she could either work three more months and then leave the company, or work part time at a reduced wage.
"It was obvious they were pushing me out the door, while the environment was very hostile," Ryan said. "I would complain, numerous times ... and nothing would ever be done."
Judy Cooper, a New York-based spokeswoman for Parsons, said the firm had not yet been served with legal papers and therefore could not comment.
Ryan's lawsuit is based on a 2003 statute that amended the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to prohibit job discrimination on the basis of gender or perceived gender.
Several lawsuits by transgender people alleging they've been denied new jobs have been filed since the state statute was enacted, said Chris Daly, director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. But Ryan may be the first California plaintiff to have transitioned to another gender while employed at the same job, . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Did it go to trial?
This is in a small OK city...................................
You summed it up exactly.
Years ago...I belonged to a racketball health club. Two gay guy's would sit in the jacuzzi together with their backs to the showers, but looking into a mirror on the other side of the jacuzzi. They would ooohh..and aaahhh..the whole time they sat there.
I complained that it was no different than me sitting in the girls locker room!!..But...nothing was ever done.
FWIW-
Yes, he had the financial backing of several NGOs and actually had a very good attorney.
At the end of the day however he simply had no case and received nothing, not even attorney’s fees. We had bent over backwards to accommodate him.
The judge wrote a great decision that meticulously ripped apart every argument and assertion offered by the plaintiff.
I know I'm in the minority here, but who cares what a person wears to work? If that person was working in reception or something that dealt with the public, than maybe there's a problem there. Otherwise, if the person can do their job, who the hell cares what they wear? Obviously, in an at-will work state, companies can fire whoever they want for whatever reason, but if this person is a good programmer/worker, why would they want to. As for causing "disruption" among fellow workers, geez, these people need to grow up and do their jobs and not worry about what their co-workers are wearing.
Because when guys wear dresses, the "work" basically ceases. The focus of attention - from start to finish - is on the deviant person. I knew this very, very well from teaching a college course with a cross-dressing guy in it. He had a point to make, of course, and this was the point: "Hey, folks, it's ALL ABOUT ME!" And he was right. From the day he enrolled til the day he dropped out, the whole course was about him. Nobody paid attention to anything or anybody else.
I knew this very, very well from teaching a college course with a cross-dressing guy in it. He had a point to make, of course, and this was the point: "Hey, folks, it's ALL ABOUT ME!" And he was right. From the day he enrolled til the day he dropped out, the whole course was about him. Nobody paid attention to anything or anybody else.
Well, that's a little different. If someone is disruptive in class or at work for any reason, that of course is a problem. It sounds like this was one of those radical idiots who cared more about his agenda than learning from you. Can I assume, though, that if a guy wearing a dress sat quietly in the back of the classroom and acted like any other student otherwise, it wouldn't affect your class a whole lot?
I don't know. I rarely taught classes in which students could sit back quietly; most of my courses required participation of various kinds. I realize I am speaking from a single experience, but I can assure you that it was a very bad experience. And when I finally had a private conversation with the student, he went on and on about how he wanted his classmates to treat him "just like anybody else." I couldn't help it. I told him point blank, "ANYBODY ELSE WHO WAS A GUY WOULD NOT BE WEARING A DRESS TO CLASS!" He dropped out shortly thereafter.
If you're telling me that someone who is clearly disruptive shouldn't be in class, I'll agree with that. If you're telling me that the mere fact that someone is wearing clothes that you consider inappropriate, but otherwise acted like any other student in your class, I don't see what the problem is. It sounds like your single experience was negative because this guy was more interested in making a political statement than learning - but there are lots of people like that - whether or not they cross-dress, wear a picture of Che Guevara (or Ronald Reagan for that matter) on their T-shirts, or insist on making statements to the class that have nothing to do with the subject at hand. Cross-dressing alone just doesn't seem like a big deal to me - he's not going to be someone I hang out with after class or work, but who cares - there are lots of people I don't care to hang out iwth for one reason or another. If they can get the job done, I don't care how they look or dress. Again, I realize I'm in the minority here, but maybe it's just that living in the Bay Area and gone to Cal, I've had a lot of opportunities to see people dressed strangely and non-gender appropriately, multiple piercings, rainbow mohawks, and any other weird-ass affectation you can think of. Once you get past the appearance, the only thing that matters is if they are able to get the job done. At Cal, I once partnered with a dyke (her word, not mine) for a linguistics project - we didn't talk politics, or the fact that she wore jeans, flannel and no makeup, but she had a great understanding of the subject material and we were able to get a lot of good work done. Appearances mean very little to me, and if dressing a certain way makes people happy, I really don't care.
With this transgendered male, who switched to female... wouldn't they still have the same upper-body strength? You'd think that a bump in the hallway would not phase them, physically. Wouldn't they still have the strength of a male, to protect themselves? I'm not advocating a tit-for-tat exchange of punches, just the ability to withstand a minor altercation.
You know, I once thought this would be a better country if it were more like the Bay Area. And even now, I sometimes think one such place may be good for us--sort of a safety valve, a place for the crazies from across America to go and debauch themselves without offending the rest of us. But as the parent of a young child, I am very, very glad there is only one San Francisco, and I'm also very glad I don't live in it.
Besides, don't believe everything you read about San Francisco. Of course all the weird, bizarre stuff gets over-reported because they make such wonderful news stories, but the truth is SF isn't a whole lot different than any other big city. Not that this is a ringing endorsement, but I get the idea that a lot of Freepers who haven't made it out here think that we all live in yurts and eat yogurt and granola...
Really. I insist on wearing a fright wig wherever I go. No one better laugh or stare.
Come out here - you won't even get a second look! : )
This is not Chris Daly the S.F. supervisor.
Ain't known as the "Granola State"* for nothing...
*(as though delicious, granola is full of fruits, nuts and flakes...)
I lived in the Bay Area myself. My son lives in San Francisco today. I know from personal experience that it collects nutcases, people who simply could not cope with the values/mores of the rest of America. In the rest of America, men do not dress like women unless they want to draw attention to their bizarre sexual confusion. In the rest of America, a part of doing almost any job is focusing on the job rather than drawing attention to your own personal perversions. But neither of those generalities seems apply in SFO. I can live with that . . . as long as it stays out there.
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