Trans Employee Fired
as Immoral and Inappropriate
ATLANTA, GA - On Tuesday, a former employee of the Georgia General Assembly claimed in a federal lawsuit that she was fired from her job as a legislative editor after informing her boss she would come to work dressed as a female as she prepared to transition from a man to woman.
Vandy Beth Glenn said Legislative Counsel Sewell Brumby fired her because the gender transition would make her colleagues feel uncomfortable and would be seen as "immoral" by Georgia legislators.
"It's been devastating. I never thought this would happen…not from a public sector job," said Ms. Glenn, formerly known as Glenn Morrison. "This is about the right of everybody to be treated equally with respect."
"I think the lawsuit is without merit," said Brumby, who declined to discuss the case further.
Glenn was hired in 2005 as a legislative editor, which entails proofreading the hundreds of measures and proposals filed each year for grammar and spelling errors. That year she was also diagnosed with gender identity disorder.
She continued to come to work as a man but dressed as a woman at home. In October 2006, Glenn told her supervisor she planned to undergo gender transition to become a woman. She was advised by her physician to start living and dressing as a female throughout the transition.
She decided on Halloween to dress as a woman for the first time at work. She claims in the lawsuit she was sent home immediately, but two other employees, both dressed in costumes, were not sent home.
Glenn was still determined to undergo the change. In June 2007, she told her office she was continuing with the transition. She gave her supervisors pamphlets about the transition process and a photo album of herself dressed as a woman.
A few months later Brumby called her into a meeting and asked whether she was undergoing the transition, according to the filings.
When she answered that she was, she claims Brumby told her it would be viewed as immoral and said it couldn't "happen appropriately" in the workplace. She was then fired and told to clean out her desk.
The lawsuit, filed by Lambda Legal, claims that the firing violated the Constitution's equal protection clause. It seeks legal fees and asks that Glenn's job be reinstated. Glenn said she is now undergoing the sex change.
"Public employees cannot be terminated merely because…employers don't approve of who she is," said Cole Thaler, Glenn's attorney.
Glenn said she knows the lawsuit could be a difficult fight but also said, "It has to be done. Someone has to do it. And I seem to have been elected."