EEOC settles "transgender funeral director" case

For $250 grand.

I have written many, many, many, many times about the transgender funeral director who was terminated from her job after she told the owner that she would begin presenting as a female.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Detroit-area funeral home for sex discrimination under Title VII. The funeral home won summary judgment, but that decision was reversed on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Then the funeral home petitioned for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Court agreed to review the case, and -- as we all know -- ruled 6-3 this past summer that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. (The Court also ruled that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.)

About a month before her Supreme Court win, Aimee Stephens died, but her widow carried on the fight.

This week, the EEOC and the funeral home agreed to a settlement of $250,000. According to a report in The Detroit News, $130,000 of that amount will go to Ms. Stephens' estate, and $120,000 will go to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Ms. Stephens.

The sexual orientation case -- Bostock v. Clayton County (Georgia) -- is still being litigated.

Robin Shea has 30 years' experience in employment litigation, including Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (including the Amendments Act). 
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