Many groups of workers are at risk of workplace discrimination. Transgender employees have exceptionally high odds of encountering a work environment that is so hostile that it constitutes a violation of anti-discrimination laws. As with all discrimination cases, a gender identity discrimination case implicates several procedural hurdles, including the statute of limitations. If you can show that the hostility you endured was a series of components of a singular continuing violation, you may be entitled to use evidence that otherwise would have been excluded as time-barred. Given the high stakes of your case and the many nuances of the law, it pays to consult an experienced New York gender identity discrimination lawyer before pursuing your case.
A gender identity discrimination case involving the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is an example of how these concepts of continuing violations and hostile work environments can interplay.
M.M., a transgender man, was a Port Authority police officer. When the officer began his job in 2013, he identified as a woman but began transitioning in 2018. He came out as trans to his coworkers in March 2019 and asked that they address him with his new name and male pronouns.
Many colleagues did not go along with this request. His superior officer, along with "several other superiors and multiple coworkers," intentionally misgendered the officer with female pronouns, according to the lawsuit. They also allegedly engaged in "deadnaming" the officer. Deadnaming, according to nyc.gov, is the "inappropriate act of referring to" a transgender person by the name they were given at birth but that they no longer consider to be their name, and it can be an act of illegal discrimination.
According to the officer, the misgendering and deadnaming did not happen once or twice but more than 50 times, including over Port Authority radio transmissions. The insults also included disparagement like "it," "whatever it is," and "transvestite." Some coworkers told colleagues that M.M. had "rubber" genitalia after his gender-affirming bottom surgery in 2020.
The officer filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 21, 2020. That date is significant because the law considers all acts of discrimination that occurred more than 180 days before that filing date barred by the statute of limitations. For M.M., that potentially meant that none of the harassment he endured in the spring and summer of 2019 was actionable.
When the 'Continuing Violation' Doctrine Applies
We say "potentially meant" because there are circumstances where these older acts of discrimination or harassment are not time-barred. One primary way this can be true happens when the worker persuades the court that the discrimination and harassment he endured were all part of a singular "continuing violation." When yours is a hostile work environment case where you have alleged a continuing violation successfully, none of the acts of discrimination and harassment you asserted will "be time barred so long as all acts which constitute the claim are part of the same unlawful employment practice and at least one act falls within the period."
There are several keys to pleading a continuing violation successfully in a hostile work environment case. If the group of acts presented by the worker are strikingly similar to one another, occur relatively frequently, take place in essentially the same setting, and are perpetrated by many of the same people, then those facts will tend to support the finding of a continuing violation.
In the officer's case, he "proffered evidence of numerous post-September 23, 2019 acts that were similar in nature to the earlier acts, occurred in essentially the same environment and with relative frequency, involved many of the same individuals, and can therefore be considered part of the same allegedly hostile work environment as the earlier acts." As a result, the court found that the officer properly pled a continuing violation and was entitled to use all the alleged acts of discrimination and harassment to support his case, not just those occurring after September 23, 2019.
Trans people want their careers to be about their work, not the contents of their underwear or medicine cabinets. Too many trans people do not get that opportunity, instead regularly facing a torrent of verbal abuse for simply living their lives. The knowledgeable New York gender identity discrimination attorneys at Phillips & Associates understand that this is often a sensitive issue and will work to protect your privacy and honor your preferences as we diligently pursue justice for you. To learn more, contact us online or at (866) 229-9441 to set up a free and confidential consultation today.