Gov. Davis has signed legislation expanding the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to prohibit job discrimination against transsexual and transgenderedapplicants and employees.
“Gender” Bias Outlawed
The new law broadens the FEHA’s prohibition against sex bias and harassment to include discrimination and harassment based on a person’s gender. “Gender” means: 1) the person’s actual sex, or 2) the employer’s perception of the person’s identity, appearance, or behavior-regardless of whether that identity, appearance, or behavior differs from what is traditionally associated with the person’s sex at birth. For example, it would be illegal to discriminate against a female applicant because she appeared masculine, whether in personality, clothing, hairstyle, speech, mannerisms, or demeanor.
Join us this fall in San Francisco for the California Employment Law Update conference, a 3-day event that will teach you everything you need to know about new laws and regulations, and your compliance obligations, for the year ahead—it’s one-stop shopping at its best.
Grooming Standards OK
The new law allows employers to impose reasonable workplace appearance, grooming, and dress standards as long as employees are allowed to appear or dress consistently with their gender identity. This means you must permit a male employee who identifies with being female to wear women’s clothing if the employee chooses to do so. But you can impose the same grooming standards on this person that you do on other employees, such as requiring skirt and dress length to fall below the knee.
Review Your Policies
Before the law becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2004, review and update your workplace policies and educate supervisors that discrimination against transgendered and transsexual employees and applicants will be illegal.