JEFF SESSIONS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LGBTQ: “The U.S. Department of Justice has reversed course on whether federal law banning sex discrimination in the workplace provides protections for transgender employees, saying in a memo that it does not.
The memo sent to U.S. Attorneys’ offices on Wednesday [10-4-17] by Attorney General Jeff Sessions says Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only prohibits discrimination on the basis of a worker’s biological sex, and not their gender identity.
Sessions rescinded an Obama administration memo from 2014 that said Title VII does protect transgender people, a position also taken by several federal appeals courts in recent years.
Department spokesman Devin O‘Malley said in a statement the government cannot expand the law beyond what Congress had intended.”
-Daniel Wiessner, “U.S. anti-bias law does not protect transgender workers: Justice Dept,” Reuters, Oct. 5, 2017 08:48am