Some of you may recall the story of Ashley Yang from last summer. Her former bosses at the Transportation Safety Administration ordered her to pat down male passengers, dress like a man, and use the men's restroom at work at LAX. When she refused, she was fired.
Her coworkers recognized her as a woman. Passengers recognized her as a woman. But her employers refused to do so.
So, with the aid of the Transgender Law Center, she filed a civil rights complaint.
She won.
Yang has scored a five months backed pay and a five-figure settlement with the agency for pain and suffering after the ordeal.
Yang started living as a woman and taking hormones to feminize her appearance in 2006, two years before she applied to work for TSA. Her interviewer never doubted that the delicately featured candidate with artfully applied makeup and finely arched eyebrows was a woman, she said. Her California driver's license identifies her as female.
She informed the agency she was transgender before a background check revealed the name she used when she was a man. The agency reminded her that agents had to be the same gender as the passengers they search and asked whether she had gone through sex reassignment surgery, which she had not.
TSA managers at LAX have to undergo mandatory sensitivity training this summer.
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said he could not discuss details of the case because of privacy rules. But he confirmed that the required training of managers started this summer and was ongoing.
"It's part of the world we live in today," he said. "We need to be aware of transgender issues not only for our co-workers, but for passengers.
Yang started living as a woman and taking hormones to feminize her appearance in 2006, two years before she applied to work for TSA. Her interviewer never doubted that the delicately featured candidate with artfully applied makeup and finely arched eyebrows was a woman, she said. Her California driver's license identifies her as female.
She informed the agency she was transgender before a background check revealed the name she used when she was a man. The agency reminded her that agents had to be the same gender as the passengers they search and asked whether she had gone through sex reassignment surgery, which she had not.
Even dressed as a man, passengers said thing like
"I haven't had a girl touch me for a long time." or, "Does this mean you are going to buy me dinner?"