In the latest salvo on what I’m now calling the War Against Trans and Non-Binary, the Texas Department of Agriculture, led by Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, has issued an internal memo stating that all employees must dress in a manner “consistent with their biological gender”.
The memo, which is clearly aimed at transgender and gender non-conforming employees, goes on to say that repeated violations of the policy will be subject to “corrective action” up to and including being fired, according to the Observer. One employee who spoke with the Observer said the policy “feels like it threatens the safety of anyone who doesn’t conform to the binary dress code.”
The internal department memo is just the latest attempt by state officials in Texas to crack down on trans and gender non-conforming people. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state agency overseeing child protective services to investigate the parents of transgender children for child abuse last year, and a bill to ban transition-related care for minors is currently moving through the legislature.
www.vice.com/…
Sid Miller is, of course, a staunch Conservative who was first elected to the Texas Legislature in 2014 and who hailed Trump’s 2017 ban on transgender people in the US military, stating “I just wonder why it took so damn long. The United States Military is not the place for leftist social experimentation.”
Yeah, not so fast, pal.
ACLU of Texas attorney Brian Klosterboer told the Texas Tribune that Miller’s dress code policy violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which deals with employment discrimination. In 2020, the Supreme Court held that sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes under the law, in an opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Not only is this a blatant violation of Title VII, but it’s also a blatant violation of a person’s free expression as guaranteed by the Constitution. Unfortunately with our current Extreme Court those protections are no longer guaranteed.
Republicans are absolutely hell-bent on erasing the transgender and non-binary population and these kinds of rules are the most egregious examples of this. However public polling is showing that these moves are unpopular with the majority of the American population, however recent polling is showing a disturbing rise in acceptance of these and other anti-trans rules and laws.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that gender identity and sexual orientation ARE protected classes under the Constitution, so prepare for lawsuits, Texas.
Stay tuned, I’m sure more is coming.