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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, July 04, 2008
Sabrina
Marcus
Taraboletti
doesn’t
want
anyone
else
to
suffer
what
she’s
endured.
Once
a
man
working
in
aeronautics
engineering,
Marcus
Taraboletti
said
she
lost
her
job
in
2003
after
informing
her
Florida
employer
that
she
planed
to
change
her
sex
from
male
to
female.
“I
cannot
tell
you
how
meaningless
life
feels
when
an
event
like
this
happens,”
she
said.
“I
was
humiliated.”
In
the
years
since,
Marcus
Taraboletti
has
been
unable
to
secure
another
job
in
her
field.
She’s
exhausted
her
savings
while
caring
for
two
children.
And
she’s
accepted
that
she
might
have
to
sell
her
home.
All
this,
Marcus
Taraboletti
said,
because
there’s
no
federal
law
barring
employers
from
discriminating
based
on
gender
identity.
“People
should
be
judged
by
the
quality
of
their
work,
by
the
quality
of
their
character,”
she
said.
“So
many
of
us
face
what
I
have
faced.
Many
more
are
preparing
to
face
it
in
the
future.
It
needs
to
stop.”
Some
members
of
Congress
agree.
During
an
unprecedented
Capitol
Hill
hearing
June
26
on
transgender
issues,
Rep.
Phil
Hare
(D-Ill.)
said
federal
laws
should
have
been
in
place
to
protect
Marcus
Taraboletti’s
career.
“This
is
a
moral
obligation,”
he
said.
“The
last
time
I
saw
the
Constitution
and
read
it,
every
person
was
supposed
to
be
created
equal.
It
didn’t
cherry
pick.”
Featuring
speakers
such
as
Taraboletti,
the
hearing
was
intended
to
give
federal
lawmakers
an
overview
of
transgender
workplace
discrimination
issues.
It
was
not
held
to
push
any
specific
bill,
but
many
speakers
repeatedly
said
new
laws
are
needed.
“Substantively,
they
provide
real
remedies
and
a
chance
to
seek
justice,”
said
Rep.
Tammy
Baldwin
(D-Wisc.),
a
lesbian.
“Symbolically,
they
say
to
America,
‘Judge
your
fellow
citizen
by
their
integrity,
character
and
talents,
not
their
sexual
orientation,
or
gender
identity,
or
race
or
religion,
for
that
matter.’
Symbolically,
these
laws
also
say
that
irrational
fear,
irrational
hate,
have
no
place
in
our
workplace.”
But
others
who
spoke
at
the
hearing
questioned
the
need
for
federal
intervention.
“We
have
numerous
federal
and
state
laws
and
employer
policies
already
on
the
books
that
help
prevent
discriminatory
practices,”
said
Rep.
John
Kline
(R-Minn.).
“Do
we
need
yet
another
federal
law?”
J.C.
Miller,
a
Washington
attorney
who
specializes
in
discrimination
cases,
also
said
federal
intervention
would
do
little
to
ease
prejudices.
“We
cannot
legislate
people
being
nice
to
each
other,”
she
said.
“It
would
be
nice
to
do
that,
but
we
cannot.
We
all
know
that.
We
cannot
legislate
people’s
internal
thoughts
and
processes.”
Rep.
Linda
Sánchez
(D-Calif.)
and
other
lawmakers,
though,
countered
Miller.
“No,
we
can’t
legislate
what
people’s
thoughts
are,
but
we
can
legislate
their
actions,”
Sánchez
said.
“And
where
we
find
discrimination,
we
can
say
that
is
something
that
is
unlawful.”
The
hearing
came
seven
months
after
House
members
voted
235-184
to
pass
the
Employment
Non-Discrimination
Act
(ENDA),
which
bars
workplace
discrimination
based
on
sexual
orientation.
The
measure
does
not
bar
discrimination
based
on
gender
identity.
A
separate
bill
to
enact
such
protections
is
before
two
House
subcommittees,
including
the
one
that
hosted
the
June
26
hearing,
but
no
major
actions
regarding
the
bill
are
pending
in
either
subcommittee.
It’s
unclear
whether
either
measure
will
advance
during
this
congressional
session.
Consequently,
advocates
used
the
June
26
hearing
to
lay
the
groundwork
for
future
legislative
proposals
and
win
new
allies.
Rep.
Barney
Frank
(D-Mass.),
who
is
gay,
also
encouraged
the
many
transgender
people
who
attended
the
hearing
to
be
tenacious
in
their
push
for
protection.
“I
recognize
when
I
first
got
involved
in
politics,
if
I
was
honest
about
who
I
was,
it
would
have
made
some
people
nervous,”
he
said.
“But
they
got
used
to
me.
I
just
want
to
reassure
people
here,
they’re
going
to
get
used
to
you.”
In
additional
comments
to
lawmakers,
Frank
said
that
transgender
people
were
making
a
reasonable
request
in
seeking
basic
workplace
protections.
“Nobody’s
asking
anybody
to
have
dinner
with
people,
or
take
them
to
the
movies,”
he
said.
“No
one
is
being
given
license
to
misbehave.”
Miller
and
Glen
Lavy,
senior
counsel
at
the
conservative
Alliance
Defense
Fund,
countered
that
such
protections
could
prove
problematic
to
businesses
and
trigger
numerous
lawsuits
if
not
clearly
written.
But
their
testimony
did
not
stick
with
some
lawmakers
at
the
hearing.
“You
know,
we
put
people
in
space,”
Hare
said.
“We
can
figure
this
out.”
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