US to pay in transgender bias lawsuit
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is not fighting a court judgment of nearly $500,000 for a Library of Congress hire who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.
The Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the decision pass Tuesday, a day after President Obama hosted gay supporters at the White House and promised to be their champion. Some activists have complained he has not led on their causes, including ending the ban on gays in the military.
Diane Schroer, a retired commander of Army special forces from Alexandria, Va., had been offered a job at the Library of Congress when he was a man, David Schroer. The offer was rescinded the day after Schroer told a library official he was going to have a sex change operation.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Schroer’s behalf in 2005, and two months ago a federal judge awarded her $491,190 in back pay and damages because of sex discrimination.
The Library of Congress and President George W. Bush’s Justice Department had argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.
Schroer said she saw the administration’s decision not to appeal as a recognition that transgender discrimination must end and “gives me renewed hope and restores some of my shaken faith in what our country stands for.’’ But she added that Congress must pass a law preventing “rampant’’ transgender discrimination across the country. 