Misgendering in the News

A recent kerfuffle has provided the opportunity to consider misgendering as harassment based on sex. In Doe v. Triangle Doughnuts, LLC, the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania used evidence that Plaintiff’s colleagues misgendered her with a male name and male pronouns despite her requests to use her female name and female pronouns to find that she had stated a claim for a hostile work environment based upon gender stereotyping in violation of Title VII. 472 F. Supp. 3d 115 (E.D. Penn. 2020). The case later settled. 

Closer to home, the Southern District of Indiana asked, “What’s in a name?” when granting summary judgment to a school district on a former teacher’s claims of failure to accommodate his religious beliefs and retaliation after the teacher refused to address a transgender student by the student’s preferred names. Kluge v. Brownsburg Cmty. Sch. Corp., No. 1:19-cv-2462, --- F. Supp. 3d. --- (S.D. Ind. July 12, 2021).

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes the position that using pronouns or names that are inconsistent with an individual’s gender identity can be considered harassment if it is done intentionally and repeatedly. See Q&A 11, Protections Against Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity (Technical Assistance Document, June 15, 2021).

This article was submitted by the Labor & Employment Law Section Executive Committee. If you would like to submit content or write an article for the Labor & Employment Law Section, please email Kara Sikorski at ksikorski@indybar.org.

Subscribe to Labor & Employment Law Section news here!