Job discrimination

Lawmakers will see a face behind push for gender, sexual ID protection

By Rhonda Bodfield
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Reprinted with permission by the subject of the article, name withheld

It became obvious to (name withheld, by request) a few years ago that she had to present herself to the world as a woman, so that her appearance matched what she had been feeling inside from the time she was knee-high. It was, nevertheless, a wrenching process, full of uncertainty and questions about acceptance.

While she had hoped to complete the transition from man to woman in relative anonymity, she didn't reckon with her then-5-year-old son introducing her to other parents as his dad at a soccer game. Her heart sank when a fast food worker called her "sir" over the drive-through speaker.

The one thing she didn't have to worry about was job security. A 40-year-old program manager at Raytheon, the Tucsonan knew from earlier cases that her employer of nearly 20 years would handle the transition in a supportive manner. But she also knows others who have not been so fortunate.

So (name withheld, by request) will come to Phoenix in the next few weeks to ask state lawmakers to pass a bill expanding employment discrimination protection to include sexual orientation and gender identity. She knows she faces a hard sell, with business interests and social conservatives joining forces to defeat the measure. So she wants opponents to meet the face they think it's OK to discriminate against, in an attempt to rob them of their more potent arguments.

"Government has an obligation to the people they govern. It's not to do what's popular. It's not to do what the majority wants. It's to do what's right and it's not right to discriminate against people".

The move will mirror another push to provide protected status to people with mental disorders as well. The bills are running separately in an attempt to make sure the politics of one don't damage the other.

While a move last session to add sexual orientation to the list passed out of the Senate, it was scuttled in the House. Last session, the mental health protection landed on the governor's desk for the first time, only to face a veto stamp because of concerns over how it would affect Arizona employers.

Indeed, Arizona employers aren't so sure themselves. "The only thing I can tell you is, we don't support anything that adds additional paperwork or imposes regulations on a business community that is already over-regulated," said Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce President Jack Camper. "There are a lot of protections now for the disadvantaged, and I frankly think we're in good shape. Just piling on is not something we'd be happy with."

Attorney General Janet Napolitano has put the weight of her office behind the push for mental health inclusion. Arizona shares the distinction with Alabama and Mississippi of being one of the only three states in the nation that do not protect those with mental disorders, she noted.

"We need this because one of the few minority groups that it's legal to discriminate against are the mentally ill. And unless you put things in law, people will discriminate," said Sherri Walton, chairman of public policy for the Mental Health Association.

With at least 11 states, including California, protecting sexual orientation, gay advocates have begun running newspaper ads stating "AZ+Gay=Fired." With the Senate evenly split between Democrats and Republicans - a scenario unlikely to be repeated after the November elections - this is perhaps their best chance at getting the bill passed.

Arizona's gay community had to decide whether to go for gender identity at all, since it clearly hurts the more-politically palatable push for ending discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Sen. Elaine Richardson, a Tucson Democrat who has championed the effort in the past and is supporting it this time around, is expecting to field the same questions she got last year from concerned colleagues who want to know what remedy would be available if a male teacher, for instance, showed up to school in a dress. Richardson said dress codes would remain in place.

"It's just a scare tactic," Richardson said. "Some people were saying if we took the transgender references out, the bill would pass, but it's staying in." She said the bill could also protect heterosexual employees from being discriminated against by gay employers.

Some are looking to Tucson to help referee the discussion. Tucson has the most progressive ordinance anywhere in the state. Businesses, housing providers and public accommodations anywhere within the city limits have had to guard against discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation since 1976. The policy, updated over the years, also protects mental disorders and gender identity.

Sylvia Campoy, the director of the city's Equal Employment Opportunity Office, said the ordinance hasn't caused a spate of claims. In fact, her office handles about 40 a year for all categories of discrimination- and half are thrown out for not meeting the legal requirements of discrimination.

Half of the claims charge discrimination based on the person's race or gender, followed by disability. About 10 percent are based on sexual orientation, and she's had only one gender identity case in the past six years. Based on Tucson's experience, she said, if the state passes a similar law, the number of claims likely will go up. "But they won't be numbers that aren't manageable."

Protecting sexual orientation alone is not sufficient. "People don't wear badges that say, 'Hi, I'm a heterosexual,'" she said. What people do see is appearance, she said, and she cites cases across the nation in which discrimination occurred, from a truck driver terminated for cross-dressing to a casino employee fired for refusing to wear makeup and wear more feminine clothes.

She knows she'll run into religious conservatives who will tell her gender identity is a choice and people have to live with the consequences. She'll tell them she tried. She was a pilot. She became a scuba instructor. She got married and had a child. Nothing helped.

"I thought all those things would fulfill me and make those thoughts go away," she said. They didn't. "It wasn't a choice. It's accepting who I am."

* Contact Rhonda Bodfield in Phoenix at (602) 271-0623 or rhondab@azstarnet.com.

http://www.azstarnet.com/