News Report #3

News Report #3
Gender Change and the Federal Hiring Process
By: Susan Smith
http://www.fedsmith.com/article/1718/

The Library of Congress was found guilty of discrimination based on the sex or change of sex of an applicant, by the U.S. District court. Testimony has concluded that the applicant David Schroer was indeed discriminated against after applying for a job at the Library of Congress. Mr. Schroer applied for the terrorism specialist position with the Congressional Research Service and due to his extensive military experience and expertise was practically guaranteed the job. However when Mr. Schroer explained that he would be undergoing gender transition to become “Diane Schroer” the position was recanted and another applicant who was less qualified was selected. The District court judge stated that direct evidence made this a clear case of sex stereotyping and discrimination because of it.

I was a little shocked by this story. I actually read some more information about this case and this is pretty compelling stuff. Federal law states that you can not discriminate due to sex, gender, religion, age or race. When I think of discrimination due to sex I think maybe sexual orientation, being homosexual, or bisexual but I have never heard of a case were gender transition was the factor. I think this struck me because it is so unusual. This man who was is a retired Army Special Forces Colonel is being discriminated against. His/her credibility as a person is coming into jeopardy, her security clearance held as David Schroer is being called into question. I mean should your security clearance really change because your cloths do. I think that the Library of Congress should be an example to the rest of the libraries in the United States, this is just bad publicity. Hello! Library of Congress- democracy kind of goes hand in hand.