The following column is a Head to Head argument answering the following question: Should federal nondiscrimination laws protect transgender employees? For the opposing viewpoint, click here.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission made a monumental decision last week stating transgender individuals are protected under federal nondiscrimination laws.
Amid all the other controversy surrounding LGBT issues, like marriage equality, I couldn’t have been more proud or excited.
The basis of the EEOC’s ruling is that transgender is a gender identity, just like male or female. As such, discrimination for employment based solely on an individual’s gender transition – no matter what stage it’s in – is illegal under the EEO sex discrimination clause.
This is a huge step for equality for the LGBT community. There will still be fights to ensure protection in other areas – like housing – for all LGBT individuals, but this decision will make those battles easier.
We shouldn’t need federal mandates telling us that if a person is qualified for a job, his or her gender shouldn’t matter.
In the case leading to this ruling, the complainant, a transgender woman, applied for a job as a forensic ballistic technician.
She had an exemplary background for the job. She is a former police detective and an armed forces veteran, which means she’s no stranger to bullets. She already had training on the system used at the ATF facility.
According to her statements, when the employers believed she was a man, they told her she was a shoo-in for the job. What about transitioning into a woman makes her all of a sudden unqualified for a job analyzing bullets?
Many critics will complain about the rights of private businesses to hire as they see fit, which is utter nonsense. The EEOC decision won’t stop businesses from choosing the most qualified candidate for the job.
It will keep businesses from refusing to hire an individual simply because the employer is uneducated, afraid, bigoted or misinformed about the employee’s gender identity.
Some uneducated or bigoted people will try to make you believe that a transgender individual is mentally unstable.
There is a section in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders regarding gender identity disorder, but it simply provides a way to identify the incongruence between the mind and body, not to indicate that these people are mentally unstable and should not be considered for jobs based on this diagnosis.
If you believe an individual with a diagnosis from that manual is automatically unstable – and therefore unemployable – then the U.S. unemployment rate should be much higher because many employed persons are diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder, Asperger’s and autism.
If a transgender person should be punished for his or her association with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, why shouldn’t people with other diagnosed disorders be punished as well?
Even homosexuality had its stint in that manual, and most people now recognize it was a mistake to use that alone as a reason to discriminate against people.
While even women are still fighting for true equality in the workplace, it has long been established that gender is not a good enough reason to deny a person who is otherwise the best candidate for a job the chance to be gainfully employed. Discrimination against transgender individuals is no different.
No matter your moral or religious beliefs around their life choices, they are still people who deserve every chance to make a fair living for themselves and their families.
They are humans, just like us. If they are the most qualified applicants, using their gender against them as the sole reason for not hiring them is not only poor decision making on the part of the company, but now it’s federally illegal.
We’ve still got a long way to go until we have full equality in many areas, but the EEOC’s decision puts us one giant step forward – for men, women, and every gender in between.
Kristi Carnahan is a 25-year-old anthropology senior from West Monroe. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_KCarnahan. ____ Contact Kristi Carnahan at [email protected]