Douglas Whaley

Today is Trans Day of Remembrance, reflecting on discrimination, including death, of trans individuals. Federal law has long banned discrimination on sex and gender, a move originally made to protect the civil rights of African Americans with (a quirk of political history) women thrown in as an afterthought.   When the question about the scope of the Civil Rights Act was addressed the courts originally ruled that “sex” did not include “sexual orientation.”   But in the last few years a number of federal courts changed their minds about this and held that “sex” does extend protection to gays.   Other federal courts disagreed and the matter is likely headed to the Supreme Court.   The Obama administration sided with a broad reading, protecting sexual orientation, and also issued regulations that “gender” should be interpreted to protect transgender individuals who believe they were born as the wrong gender and work to change that as they get older. But Barac