Transgender Pacifica Woman Wins Big Equal Opportunity Employment Case

A Pacifica woman won what supporters are calling a "game-changing" victory when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decided that federal sex discrimination law protects workers who are discriminated against because they are transgender.

Mia Macy, a 39-year-old Pacifica resident who identifies as transgender, a veteran and a former police detective, was denied employment as a ballistics technician at the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) in Walnut Creek last year, according to the Bay Area Reporter. 

She applied for the job when she was identifying as a man, but during the hiring process, she told the BATFE about a gender transition. They told her that funding for the position had been cut soon after. 

She said the loss of potential employment cost her her home to foreclosure.

The ruling by the commission, dated Friday but released Tuesday, found that Title VII, federal sex discrimination law, protects workers who are discriminated against based on the fact that they are transgender, according to the Reporter. 

"This decision isn't just for me," Macy said to reporters Tuesday. "It's good for me, but this is a door that's opening a little wider" for others who identify as transgender.

The complaint with the EEOC was filed by the Transgender Law Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, on Macy's behalf. 

For more of the story, head to the Bay Area Reporter. 

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