The purpose of prohibiting sex discrimination in employment is to make gender irrelevant to employment decisions. The same is true with regard to race, age, national origin, religion and disability. The point is that you can rise based not on who you know or what you are but on what you can do.
This basic, fundamental point was the basis for a recent ruling by the federal appeals court that covers Kentucky, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, that a person discriminated against based on her transgender status is discriminated against on the basis of sex. The case is EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes.
The context of the ruling, since it involved a transgender individual, is somewhat controversial, but, at the end of the day, the Court's analysis about what the elimination of sex discrimination from employment decisions is very well-done and makes the ultimate ruling really quite easy.
So when considering sex discrimination in employment we should begin with a basic question: was gender relevant to the employment decision?
Lexington, Kentucky discrimination lawyer Robert Abell represents individuals and employees in discrimination cases in state and federal courts all over Kentucky.
