Fla. MacDonald’s Manager Tells Transgender Job Applicant “We Don’t Hire Faggots”

By Jodi Jacobson – rhrealitycheck.org

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) has filed an employment discrimination complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations against McDonald’s for discriminating against a transgender person who applied for a job.

TLDEF reports that:

On July 10, 2009, Zikerria Bellamy applied online for a position as a Shift Manager or Crew Leader at McDonald’s. On July 28, after managers at McDonald’s learned that Zikerria is transgender, she received the following voicemail message from one of the managers:

You lied to me…..You told me you was a woman….We don’t hire faggots.

This case has implications at both the state and national level. In Florida, according to TLDEF, no law explicitly addresses discrimination based on gender identity. But administrative agencies in Florida have ruled that transgender people are protected by the Florida Human Rights Act’s prohibitions on sex and disability discrimination. The Competitive Workforce Bill, which would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the Florida Civil Rights Act, was introduced in the Florida legislature on November 20.

But even these protections are relatively rare. In 38 states, there is no law protecting transgender people from being fired because of who they are.

Federal law similarly offers no job protection for transgender people.

According to TLDEF:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) (S.1584) would address discrimination in the workplace by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote an employee based on the person’s gender identity or sexual orientation at companies with fifteen or more employees. The legislation was introduced in the United States Senate on August 5, 2009. On November 5, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held the Senate’s first hearing on the latest version of ENDA. A version of ENDA was also introduced in the United States House of Representatives on June 24, 2009. The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the measure on September 23. Little has happened since.

A 2007 survey showed that 72 percent of Americans agree that “fairness is a basic American value and employment decisions should be based solely on qualifications and job performance, including for transgender people.” In a 2002 poll, 61 percent of those polled said that we need laws to protect transgender people from discrimination.

Yet the lack of legal protections has immediate ramifications. TLDEF cites a recent survey conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality which found that 47 percent of transgender people report being fired, or denied a job or promotion, just because of who they are.