Transgender Federal Employees Protected

President Obama's lawyers are drafting guidelines that would bar discrimination against federal employees based on gender identity, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The guidelines will protect federal transgender employees from discrimination, and are the first of their kind on a federal level.

The gender identity protections were not part of President Obama's June 17 announcement of benefits to same-sex spouses of federal employees. However, the National Center for Transgender Equality says it and other advocacy groups have been in ongoing talks with the White House regarding protections for transgender federal employees and called the process "on track."

Specifically, the protections will add "gender identity" to a clause stating that supervisors cannot discriminate against employees based on "race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation." ("Sexual orientation" was also added to this list with Obama's June 17 presidential memorandum.) They will also provide transgender employees a course of action to protest a job action as discriminatory. "There is a very important symbolic value to that, from our point of view," NCTE executive director Mara Keisling said.