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Federal court rules trans folks are entitled to protections under Americans with Disabilities Act [1]
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Date: 2022-08-18
According to the outlet, Williams suffered deeply after being reassigned to the men’s prison. She alleged that the prison withheld her hormone therapy for weeks at a time, which resulted in her experiencing emotional distress. She also reported being harassed by both inmates and employees of the prison. In addition to being misgendered, she said she worried about her safety. She was also forced to shower alongside male inmates, for example, and undergo body searches in the men’s section.
After Williams was released in 2019, she sued the sheriff and several others on the grounds that they did not appropriately treat her gender dysphoria. She argued they violated the ADA, and her case was initially dismissed but was taken up again in appeals court, which leads us to the ruling from earlier this week.
"We have little trouble concluding that a law excluding from ADA protection both 'gender identity disorders' and gender dysphoria would discriminate against transgender people as a class, implicating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," the majority opinion in the three-judge panel ruling explains in part, per CNN.
“We see no legitimate reason why Congress would intend to exclude from the ADA's protections transgender people who suffer from gender dysphoria,” they added.
Now, this is clearly a big win for incarcerated trans folks, but it also sets an important foundation for trans folks in the workplace when it comes to things like bathroom access. It’s also important to remember that the takeaway here is not that being trans, in itself, is a disability, but rather that gender dysphoria can be. This positions safe, age-appropriate care for gender dysphoria within the context of disability care and access, which can and should help public spaces and workplaces move along with trans rights and inclusion.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/18/2117463/-Here-s-how-a-federal-appeals-court-just-expanded-important-rights-for-trans-folks-at-work
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