Discrimination & the Law

[Jenna Lynne]

For complicated reasons, I'm not in a great living situation or economic situation at present. Without going into too much detail, let's just say I'm self-employed. If I were to come out, I would certainly lose some of my clients, and that would put me in a financial bind.

I'm aware that Internet forums are not the right place to look for legal (or medical) advice! To learn whether I have any legal protection or recourse at all, I need to consult an attorney.

Having said that, I'm curious:

Have any of you girls run into situations of this sort, either with respect to an employer or while self-employed? How did you handle it? What happened? Were you able to avail yourself of any legal protections?

I guess the question concerns being accidentally outed too, but that's not at the front of my thoughts tonight. Tonight I'm thinking of intentionally outing myself, openly cross-dressing (perhaps often), while protecting myself legally and financially to whatever extent I can.

I should also say that I'm not interested in SRS. An actual legal change of identity is ... well, that's a whole other set of headaches. I might consider it at some point down the road, if I thought anything was to be gained by it, but that would be later, much later.

Any advice? Hit me with your best shot! :daydreaming:

***Jenna Lynne***

[Bev06 GG]

Hi Jenna,
Unfortunately it isn't always that easy to prove Discrimination because employers or companies that you deal with can hide behind a multiple of facades. They can give many different reasons for dismissing your services or not doing business with you. Its not their job to prove that they didn't discriminate its your job to prove that they did and boy that aint easy. We gotta long way to go yet Jenna
Bev

[Tina B.]

In California you can be fired with out much cause at all, and there is nothing much you can do about it, since we are a right to work state, and as for being self employed, you just can't make someone do bussiness with you, to many ways to justify going with someone else.
Wish it wern't so, but as Bev said, we have a long way to go!
Tina B.
Changing from male to female seldom makes economic since, even without the bigotry to crossdressers, women generally make less for the same work.

[sherri]

My first reaction to your question was yeah right, like you could actually prosecute a client who chooses not to do business with a crossdresser. But then I thought, well, what if the client was the government and you could prove arbitrary discrimination? Does such protection even exist, as perhaps it does for minorities, for instance? I kinda doubt it, and even if it did, it would be a long shot. Choose your battles, baby.

[Niya W]

In California you can be fired with out much cause at all, and there is nothing much you can do about it, since we are a right to work state, and as for being self employed, you just can't make someone do bussiness with you, to many ways to justify going with someone else.
Wish it wern't so, but as Bev said, we have a long way to go!
Tina B.
Changing from male to female seldom makes economic since, even without the bigotry to crossdressers, women generally make less for the same work.
Err that cant fire for being transgender. In California that's they same as fire you be cause of race or gender .

They would have to make up another reason

[jamie55]

Hi Jenna: I too am self employed i.e. independant contractor. I can tell you that self employed persons have very little protections. Even iron clad contracts can be broken for little or no reason. You can get underbid by just a few cents and down the road you go etc. If you feel that you would lose work over crossdressing then it's up to you to decide which is more important. Self employed persons have little recourse if we lose work. Of course gov't contracts are different and I've known of people who make their wife, mother, sister, etc chairman of the board so they can qualify as a minority to have a better chance of getting those lucrative contracts but that's a whole different thing. Good luck and choose wisely.