Why We Need to Recognize the Rights of Transgender

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Why We Need to Recognize the Rights of Transgender During the summer of 2013, Aimee Stephens wrote a letter to her employer explaining that she was a transgender and she would begin dressing like a transgender to her place of work. Little did she know that she was getting into a legal battle that would last for so many years. Stephens worked at R&G and G&R Harris Funeral Homes in Detroit as an attendant. She spent most of her time writing her letter to the management and immediately after the management received the letter, they declined her requests and informed her that “it was not going to work out”CITATION Ema18 \p 1 \l 1033 (Emanuella 1). It is also worth noting that Stephens had spent most of her time fighting the fact that she was indeed a transgender. The events were so bitter that she was contemplating ending her life. She had great hopes that the management would consider her decision since she had worked at the family-owned organization for about 6 years with great positive reviewsCITATION Ema18 \p 6 \l 1033 (Emanuella 6). Unfortunately, the management of the organization told her it was not going to work out since what she wanted to do was against the Christian doctrines upheld by the organization. She would later be fired from the company. The Equal Employment Equality Commission sued the funeral home for firing Stephens on the basis of being a transgender. A legal battle ensued as both sides tried to protect themselves from the wrath of the law. From Right (Aimee Stephens) and her wife Donna Stephens(left) Source: CNN The above case presents a case where people are discriminated in the workplace on the basis of sexual stereotypes. It can as well be termed as employee discrimination. It also demonstrates that there is a strong relationship that exists between gender identity and workplace performance. So many employees are still going through discrimination at the workplace on the basis of their sexual beliefs. In a research conducted by the Williams Institute, it was discovered that more than one in four employees who were being fired, not promoted or not getting hired was because of their gender identity and their gender expressionCITATION Chr17 \p 32 \l 1033 (Christy, Taylor and Stephen 32). In another survey carried out, most of the employees argued that the LGBTQ employees go through discrimination in the workplace. Understanding Transgender The American Psychological Association defines transgender individuals as “people whose gender identity or expression does not respond to the sex they were assigned end during their time of birth”CITATION Ame15 \p " p. 845" \n \t \l 1033 ( p. 845). Some transgender people can make a decision to live as the opposite gender to the one they were given at the time of birth. This often involves surgery of medical procedures and it can take a long time for it to come to completion. In the US, there are more than 8 million adults who belong to LGBTQCITATION Gat11 \p 17 \l 1033 (Gates 17). This figure presents about 3.5% of the adult population. It is also estimated that there are about 700,000 transgender individuals CITATION Gat11 \l 1033 (Gates). The above figure is only an approximation and there is a great possibility that ther...