Trans bus driver’s appeal dismissed

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A transsexual bus driver who was fired for using the women’s toilets had her appeal dismissed by a federal appeals court in Denver last week.

In 2002, in preparation for gender reassignment surgery, Krystal Etsitty was taking hormone therapy and living as a woman.

She had officially changed her birth name Michael to Krystal and had changed this detail on her driver’s licence.

She was fired from her job for using the women’s facilities shortly after revealing that she was a pre op transsexual to her employer, Utah Transit Authority.

In 2005 Ms Etsitty’s original case of unfair dismissal based on the fact she was a transsexual not conforming to her gender stereotype was rejected by the district court on the grounds that in US law sexual discrimination does not cover those who do not live up to the stereotypes of their gender.

The court ruled that transsexuals are not included in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which protects against employment discrimination, regardless of conformity to stereotype.

The appeal was dismissed last week despite an amicus brief, a document offering legal arguments for the plantiff, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, Lambda Legal Defence and Education Fund, and the National Centre for Lesbian Rights.

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