A transgender postal worker can move forward with her hostile work environment claims

A federal district court in California refused on April 22 to dismiss a former employee’s lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service alleging she was harassed and discriminated against because she is a transgender woman (Scannell v. DeJoy).
When the employee started working at USPS’s Culver City station, she presented as a man while privately undergoing gender transition, according to court documents. After a co-worker saw a photo of her on a messaging app and outed her, other employees called her homophobic slurs, shared unwanted personal information and made threats, she alleged. The station postmaster then allegedly removed her from a supervisory role and replaced her with someone who wasn’t outwardly gay or transgender.
The employee was briefly able to transfer to another station but ordered back to Culver City, court documents said. Fearing this would exacerbate her depression, she allegedly requested leave as an accommodation but never got a response. Ultimately, she resigned, citing intolerable working conditions, and sued the USPS for subjecting her to a sex-based hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and for disability discrimination under the Rehabilitation Act, among other charges.