Glenn gets her job back, with salary, seniority and benefits but her transphobic boss wants her to stay home. An agreement was reached in federal court Friday in which Vandy Beth Glenn will be reinstated to her Georgia legislative editor job.
But since Sewell Brumby, the man who fired her three years ago and jumped this mess off in the first place is once again technically her boss, it was thought best that since Brumby is appealing Judge Richard Story's order, the potentially awkward situation be avoided.
Especially in light of what Brumby said about Glenn in a deposition taken last year according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“It makes me think about things I don’t like to think about, particularly at work … I think it’s unsettling to think of someone dressed in women’s clothing with male sexual organs inside that clothing.”
Discrimination costs, people.
The appeal could take up to three years to sort out, so stay tuned for the ongoing story and results from this peachy trial.
On Tuesday a federal judge ordered that Glenn be reinstated to her legislative editor job in the Georgia General Assembly.
"I’ve always know we were in the right," a tearful Glenn said in a GA Voice courtroom interview after the hearing. "This is our time. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are no longer disposable. We can’t be thrown out with the trash and this decision affirms that."
No date was set for Glenn's return to her job and they are willing to pay her until the issues are sorted out. A hearing is scheduled for 9:30 AM EDT on August 6 concerning whether to stay the reinstatement.
She's already been harmed enough. Let Vandy Beth return to work without delay.
TransGriot Note: Since ENDA is languishing in committee right now, thought I'd bring up this piece of African-American trans history that I discovered in the digitized JET magazine archives. It was reported in JET Magazine's June 27, 1994 issue, using proper pronouns I might add.
It once again drives home the point that not only do African descended transpeople exist, the issues we face ain't nothing new, and in many cases we took positive action to fight back.
Patricia Underwood transitioned and underwent SRS in 1982, but found herself a decade later embroiled in a legal battle after being dismissed from her receptionist job because in their words 'she looked too much like a man'.
Then 31 year old Washington DC resident Patricia Underwood sued New York City based Archer Management Services Inc., a New York City-based firm with a Washington DC office where she was employed.
Because federal laws do not (and still don't) properly protect transpeople against discrimination, Underwood flied suit in U.S. District Court under the broader D.C. Human Rights Law that prohibits discrimination based on personal appearance.
She alleged in her suit she was fired because because she is a transsexual and retains some masculine traits such as her large bone structure.
Gender identity and expression in the areas of employment, schools, housing and public accommodations were added to the DC law in 2006.
"I just want to stand up and say that I am not a freak, but a person," said Underwood at the time. "I was doing the work they asked me to do well, and I don't deserve to be treated like that because of my looks."
Archer in a statement according to JET, said it "vigorously denies any allegations of wrongdoing made by Patricia Underwood." It said it believes that her claim of discrimination based on personal appearance is, "without merit ... and that all of Archer's actions related to Patricia Underwood were wholly lawful and nondiscriminatory."
The Underwood v. Archer Management Services, Inc. case was the first effort to determine if the 1977 DC Human Rights Law's looks-oriented discrimination provision applied to transsexuals.
Archer moved to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim, arguing that the Act does not forbid discrimination against transsexuals. U.S. District Judge Richey disagreed, at least in part, finding that Underwood's factual allegations arguably stated a claim of discrimination on the basis of personal appearance (i.e., the reference to "masculine traits").
Richey followed well-established Title VII precedent at the time in dismissing that portion of the complaint based on sex discrimination. Interestingly, he also dismissed the portion based on sexual orientation discrimination, finding that none of Underwood's factual allegations raised any issue about her sexual orientation (and implicitly recognizing that sexual orientation and transsexuality are distinct phenomena). 1994 WL 369468 (U.S. Dist. Ct., D.C., July 12).
Note to all you GL people claiming transpeople are covered under 'sexual orientation language' when y'all move to cut us out of legislation. This case says it doesn't.
Did Patricia Underwood receive justice? Still trying to find out if that case was eventually resolved to her and her attorney Wayne Cohen's satisfaction.
Thanks to the archived pages of JET magazine, we'll get to take another trip on the way back machine and check out a little trans history with soul.
This time we're going to travel back to November 1995 and the North Carolina campus of Fayetteville State University. We're going to tell the story of transwoman Sharon Franklin Brown's brush with job discrimination.
Sharon grew up in a southern African-American community, feeling the usual angst about her gender issues and sensing her family's shame about them. After telling her parents she was going to make the physical changes to complete her transition, they disowned her for 18 years.
Fast forward to the Fayetteville State campus. The then 29 year old Sharon had been transitioning for seven years at the time was on hormones and working toward getting SRS.
She was attempting to switch from a part time position as a resident adviser in a women's dorm on this HBCU campus to a full time position.
Her supervisor, the late Iris Hunt-Smith said at the time in a Jet interview she was the best residence director she'd ever had.
But when Sharon's old male name popped up while checking her Social Security number, the administrators learned that she was a transwoman.
So what did they do? Bounced her out the door, citing misrepresentation on her application.
Sharon begs to differ. She said at time, "If I wasn't performing up to par I could understand. But the only decision was made according to gender. My being let go had nothing to do with performance. I would still be there today had they not found out."
That was cosigned by her boss Hunt-Smith, the then director of student housing. "She was an excellent residence director. She was doing a good job so I was very sad to see her go."
That experience galvanized her to become an activist and speak to GLBT organizations and groups at various North Carolina universities about her situation such as Duke and the University of North Carolina.
She's still an activist on GLBT employment issues, but now lives in Los Angeles and works for the LA Gay and Lesbian Center there.
You can check out this footage of Sharon speaking at a USC School of Social Work's All School Day on February 7, 2008.
Sharon Franklin Brown continues to remind us why ENDA is vitally important and needs to pressed far more aggressively to final passage than the community is currently doing.
I'm also happy to see that Sharon is still fighting for and representing the African descended trans community as well.
If you've been wondering what's up with Susan A. Stanton, she's doing quite well thank you after being selected on a 4-1 vote back on April 7 to become the new city manager for Lake Worth, FL.
As most of you who followed her story know, she was dismissed after 17 years as the Largo, FL city manager when she announced her plans to transition.
She was a finalist for two other city manager jobs in Tempe, AZ and Sarasota, FL before successfully getting this one.
She started her new job on Monday and is getting paid $150,000 to manage the city of Lake Worth, FL. Here's hoping that Ms. Stanton has a long, successful and less drama filled tenure there.
As a reminder to you GLB peeps that we ain't forgot about ENDA and how serious having a job is for transgender people (especially transgender peeps of color), here's a San Francisco TV news story about a transgender job fair they conducted there recently.
The new session of the 110th Congress starts January 3. In light of the way y'all felt about being treated like second class citizens, we expect that if a new ENDA bill is introduced in this session, you'll remember how you felt after Prop 8 and trust that the new ENDA bill will not only be transgender inclusive, but you will do your part as our allies to help it pass.
'In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute'.
Justice Thurgood Marshall
As a proud African-American that also happens to be a transwoman, there is no doubt and I make it quite clear on many TransGriot and TBP posts that I love my people.
But some of them don't love me.
African-Americans have a duality when it comes to African-American transpeople. On one hand some of my peeps can be the most accepting, compassionate, articulate and passionately motivated advocates for us.
On the other hand, some of them can also be our cruelest tormentors. Some of our unfortunate sisters who are memorialized on the Remembering Our Dead list (and sadly, this year we are adding three more names so far to that list) were killed by other African-Americans.
I and my transsistahs and transbrothas have noted the reluctance of the NAACP, some African-American politicians, ministers and other mainstream African-American civil rights organizations to get on board with pushing for civil rights coverage for their fellow African-Americans who happen to be transgender. Some of this reticence is driven by misinterpretations of Biblical scripture, misinformation, and in some cases outright hatred, ignorance and transphobic bigotry.
But I want to point out why the issues that Black transgender people deal with are Black community issues as well.
Let's start with the most pressing one, jobs. Many of my transgender brothers and sisters are gainfully employed. Many of us are college educated. But because transpeople aren't covered in job discrimination laws in many parts of the country, it's hard for us just to get a job.
Eevn if we have one, some employers are aware that it's illegal to fire us for being African-American. They'll just simply say I'm firing this person because they're transgender and unfortunately get away with it.
Sometimes. as Rochelle Evans has discovered, they won't hire us period.
Lack of employment is a root cause to some of what ails the African-American transgender community. We gotta eat, put clothes on our backs and have a place to lay our head. In addition to that, we gotta keep the cash flowing not only to pay for the necessities of life, but in order to complete our gender transitions.
Sometimes, my young transsisters are kicked out of their homes by their own families. They don't want to deal with their gender transformations out of either sheer ignorance or specious religious reasons.
Cutting us off from legitimate employment and the love and support of their family leads to some people feeling they have no other option but to turn tricks for cash. The end result of that can be what happened to young Ebony Whitaker a few weeks ago.
If they're lucky enough to not run into a john that kills them, then my street walking transsisters are at higher risk for contracting HIV, another issue in which we share a kinship with our African-American biobrothers and biosisters. They get paid more if they have sex with clients without a condom, and it's hard to say no to that if you're trying to survive.
The 2000 Washington Transgender Needs Assessment showed an alarming 25% of the respondents of that survey replying they were HIV positive. If they don't get it that way, because of the cost of the hormones that we need to transition, some girls pool their money to share hormone shots. If the person you're sharing a needle with is HIV positive, then you'll share that with them as well as the hormones you're injecting into your body.
Speaking of injecting things into your body, there's also the practice of silicone pumping parties than can lead to HIV infection, disfigurement or death.
Police brutality, as the Duanna Johnson case demonstrated in Memphis, is an issue we share with our bio brothers and sisters. We also have the added problem of being harassed by the people who are supposed to protect and serve us either verbally, physically or in some cases sexually.
Because our ministers have been more concerned with clocking dollars than uplifting the community and speaking truth to power, they've been acting and sounding more like white fundies instead of adhering to the traditional mission of the Black church to be drum majors for justice. That nasty rhetoric coming from our pulpits has opened gender variant kids up to being bullied, harassed and possibly killed. In some cases it has gotten so bad that some transpeople drop out of school because of it.
If you drop out, not only does it cut your income earning potential and your chances of landing a good paying job, it also greases the skids for you to end up in that vicious cycle that leads to the street life or worse.
The point that I must continue to make until some of my fellow African-Americans get it is that just because I transitioned, that doesn't forever divorce me or any of us from the African-American community. I am just as down with the goal of uplifting the race just as much as any non-transgender African-American.
We African-American transpeople want to do our part to help. But this is a two way road of mutual assistance. You have a moral obligation as fellow African-Americans to help us, too. We are your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. We are as Frederick Douglass wrote in a North Star editorial in 1847:
'We are one, our cause is one, and we must help each other; if we are to succeed.'
Frankie Beverly said the same thing in the song 'We Are One' a century later.
I would have to say that transgender issues weren't on his mind when he wrote this song, but the point is we are one people. We'll need help from our biobrothers and biosisters to help stop the misinformation, the violence directed at us by our own people and help from our elected lawmakers to expand civil rights laws so they protect us from job discrimination as well.
Yes, Black transgender issues are Black community issues. The sooner that realization takes hold and we begin working together to solve what ails Black transgender America, the sooner we African-American transpeople can do our jobs to help heal what ails Black America as well.
And there is a but in this discrimination case. 
