Who would have thunk it? April 18 2011

To view a video introduction of today’s blog by Don, click on the arrow above.

In the strange lawsuit department: a man who was fired from his job with a drug treatment center has sued the company for discrimination. The position from which he was discharged involves monitoring men as they give urine samples for drug testing and is open only to men. The reason the man was fired was that his employer discovered that even though he had always considered himself a man, he was born with female genitalia. After counseling, male hormone treatments and sex-reassignment surgery, his drivers license, birth certificate and Social Security card had all been reissued to reflect that he is a man.

The plaintiff agrees that it is appropriate that only a man should be in the position he was fired from, so the only question is whether or not someone who is living as a man and is recognized by the government as a man is a man for purposes of employment.

What is most perplexing about this case is trying to figure out why the employer would decide to dump this guy. Can it make any difference at all how he was configured at birth? Does anyone care?