A 25-year-military veteran who was denied a position as a terrorism specialist with the Library of Congress because she was transitioning from male to female was discriminated against because of her sex, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules.

The Library said that it had a number of nondiscriminatory reasons for refusing to hire the claimant, bringing up concerns about her ability to maintain or timely receive a security clearance, her trustworthiness, and the potential that her transition would distract her from her job. The Library also argued that a hiring decision based on transsexuality was not unlawful discrimination under Title VII. The court finds the reasons presented by the employer to be pretextual and to lack credibility.

The court says there was direct and compelling evidence that the “hiring decision was infected by sex stereotypes.” The decision-maker “admitted that when she viewed the photographs of [the claimant] in traditionally feminine attire, with a feminine hairstyle and makeup, she saw a man in women’s clothing.” The court also points out that the decision-maker “testified that her difficulty comprehending [the claimant’s] decision to undergo a gender transition was heightened because she viewed [the claimant] not just as a man, but, in light of her Special Forces background, as a particularly masculine kind of man.”

“In refusing to hire [the claimant] because her appearance and background did not comport with the decisionmaker’s sex stereotypes about how men and women should act and appear, and in response to [the claimant’s] decision to transition, legally, culturally, and physically, from male to female, the Library of Congress violated Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination,” the court decides. Schroer v. Billington