What Happens in Mass. Under Our 'ENDA' Law

Geraldine A. Hawkins
December 10, 2002

In the first ruling of its kind in Massachusetts, Superior Court Justice Linda Giles upheld the claim of a former man to unlawful discrimination in his/her lawsuit against Sky Publishing Corporation.

Allie Lie is a "transgender" who was born a man, but assumed a woman's identity. He took a job as editorial assistant with the astronomy journal Sky in 1994 as Robert Lie. But by May 1998, he was coming to work dressed as a woman.

Management met with Lie and told him it was inappropriate to come to work dressed in women's clothes. They told Lie that they did not want to fire him. They told him to dress in accord with "reasonable policy." Lie continued to dress as a woman.

Lie was diagnosed with "gender dysphoria," the medical term for individuals seeking a sex change. Lie was undergoing psychotherapy as well as hormone treatments to change the composition of his body.

Lie filed a complaint with the Cambridge Human Rights Commission and soon afterward received a written request from Sky Publishing demanding that he dress in male attire. It threatened termination if he did not comply. Lie then filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). Two weeks later, Sky Publishing fired him.

When the MCAD case came to nothing, Lie withdrew it and turned to the Massachusetts Superior Court in July 2001, where on October 7 Judge Giles ruled held that Lie could indeed claim discrimination on account of sex and disability.

"Wait until the case comes to trial," Susan Lit, President of Sky Publishing, tells MassNews. She maintains that Judge Giles's decision means only that "they are moving the case along."

"Sky's position was that Lie was not discharged for cross-dressing," writes Robert S. Leonard in Gay City News (Nov. 15, 2002), "but rather for sending a nasty, insubordinate e-mail to two supervisors in July 1998, using hostile and disrespectful language."

"This employee was fired for cause," Lit assures MassNews, "not because she was transgendered."

But this is not a suit that any company can "win," lawyers tell MassNews. Even if they do "win," no business can afford this type of harassment and legal expenses for very long, they say. In the end, most companies are advised to just settle a suit of this type because it is easier and cheaper than fighting it.

They say that it is only small companies like Sky Publishing that litigate a claim of this type. The more sophisticated companies just write it off as an extra cost of doing business in Massachusetts, If ENDA passes, they say, more American companies will just move overseas.