The plaintiff was born a male, but felt that she was a woman since puberty. In 2005, the plaintiff was diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID), as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In October 2005, the Georgia General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) hired the plaintiff to work as an editor. When she was hired, she presented as a man.
In 2006, the plaintiff informed her immediate supervisor that she was a transexual and was in the process of becoming a woman. On Halloween in 2006, OLC employees were allowed to come to work dressed in costumes. The plaintiff dressed as a woman. The defendant, the head of the OLC, told the plaintiff that dressing as a woman was inappropriate and asked her to leave the office.
Shortly thereafter, the defendant and the immediate supervisor discussed the fact that the plaintiff was transexual and intended to undergo gender transition.
In the fall of 2007, the plaintiff informed the immediate supervisor that she would begin coming to work dressed as a woman and would be changing her legal name. The immediate supervisor informed the defendant, who then terminated the plaintiff.
The plaintiff then sued on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, alleging sex discrimination and medical discrimination. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted the plaintiff a summary judgment on the sex-discrimination claim, but granted the defendant a summary judgment on the medical-discrimination claim. The defendant appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
The court of appeals affirmed the U.S. district court’s decision on the sex-discrimination claim, holding that discriminating against someone on the basis of his or her gender non-conformity constitutes sex-based discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The court also pointed out that all persons, whether or not transgendered, are protected from discrimination on the basis of gender stereotype. See Glenn v. Brumby, decided on December 6, 2011.
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