Your gender identity is the gender with which you identify regardless if it is different from the anatomical gender that you had at birth. While there isn’t a federal law that expressly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, the Equal Employment Opportunity has interpreted the prohibition against sex discrimination to also include discrimination based on gender identity. Approximately 20 states also outlaw this type of discrimination in the workplace. The attorneys at Swartz Swidler advocate for people who have been the victims of workplace gender identity discrimination. Employers are not allowed to treat people who are gender nonconforming or transgender differently.

Where is gender identity discrimination illegal?

Around 20 states and the District of Columbia prohibit workplace discrimination based on gender identity. Some local governments and cities also have bans against gender identity discrimination. In New Jersey, gender identity discrimination in private workplaces is expressly forbidden under the Law Against Discrimination. In Pennsylvania, there is no law that expressly prohibits gender identity discrimination by private employers. In 2016, Governor Wolf signed two executive orders that expressly prohibited gender identity discrimination against public employees. In August 2018, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission issued guidelines that gender identity discrimination is a form of prohibited sex discrimination. Under federal law, some courts have ruled differently, and gender identity discrimination remains an area of law that continues to develop.