Doraville won’t discriminate against transgender employees

Doraville has become the latest Georgia city to add transgender employees to its nondiscrimination policy.

The move means transgender workers — those whose biological and gender identity are not the same — cannot be fired or mistreated in the northern DeKalb County city. “We have never discriminated against anyone, and we never will,” said Mayor Ray Jenkins. “We want to stay ahead of the issue.”

The policy puts Doraville in rare company. Atlanta and Decatur are the only other cities in the state that protect transgender workers.

In fact, while the protections have become more common in private business, they are more unusual at the municipal level. That is why, to advocates, it’s symbolic for a former industrial city of just 10,000 to approve the policy.

The change comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit by Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a transgender woman who said she was fired from her job at the Georgia General Assembly because of her decision to change her gender from male to female.

Jeff Graham, who heads Georgia Equality, consulted with city leaders when fashioning the policy.

“Businesses have understood it for years, but it’s important to see a city make the statement that, as a public entity, they will protect all of their citizens,” Graham said.

City leaders said they were not aware of any transgender employees or those who planned to change gender. Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Roche said he first recommended both sexual orientation and gender identity be added to the city employee manual in February when he realized gay and transgender workers were not protected from discrimination.

A mild controversy broke out in City Hall over fears that adding the protection would require additional bathrooms or other facilities. City council added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy last summer, without similar protection for transgender workers.

Public debate centered on whether an insubordinate employee could show up to work in a dress one day, just to be a distraction, Roche said. That fear was eliminated with a requirement that workers give supervisors a 30-day notice of intent to alter their gender or gender identity.

“People used scare tactics, but it actually worked out fine by adding the notice,” Roche said. “At the end of the day, it became a question of, if we are willing to discriminate against transgender people, who else are we going to allow discrimination against? We can’t allow it, not for anyone.”

Transgender is an umbrella term that covers cross-dressers, transsexuals and others whose outward appearance doesn’t match their gender at birth.