Rights panel accepts
transgender bias cases

5 transgendered people
complained of discrimination
by their employers

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By Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.com

Hawaii civil rights commissioners have ruled that the commission can hear sexual discrimination complaints filed by transgendered or transsexual individuals.

The decision was issued yesterday as a response to a petition by commission Executive Director William Hoshijo, who made the query based upon five complaints filed two years ago.

According to Webster's Dictionary, the term transgender is defined as one who is "exhibiting the appearance and behavioral characteristics of the opposite sex."

A transsexual is defined as "a person with a psychological urge to belong to the opposite sex that may be carried to the point of undergoing surgery to modify the sex organs to mimic the opposite sex."

"We brought the petition before the commission because we felt it presented a very important issue: whether the HCRC has jurisdiction to accept, investigate and litigate complaints of sex discrimination brought by transgender and transsexual individuals," Hoshijo stated in a news release.

"We strongly believe this decision is correct."

Opposing the petition during a hearing last week was the law firm of Torkildson Katz Fonseca Jaffe Moore & Hetherington, which represented the unnamed employers listed in the complaints.

Though firm officials were unavailable for comment yesterday, attorney Richard Rand argued last week that "the law only recognizes males and females" and that it "protects a person from discrimination based upon their anatomical characteristics."

Rand also said, "The sex discrimination provisions of Hawaii law do not protect persons from discriminations based upon their self-selected gender."

In a letter to a Civil Rights Commission investigator dated Jan. 24, 2000, Rand had asked that the charges against his client be dismissed because the commission "lacks jurisdiction over the charges because there is no recognized category of 'transgender' under either Hawaii or federal law."

Last month, Hoshijo filed a petition asking that commissioners rule on the matter and whether the state does have jurisdiction.

Though Rand argued that such a decision would essentially change state law, commission attorneys said they sought only to clarify the law.

"We fully expect that there will be an appeal by the respondents to Circuit Court," Hoshijo said. "Meanwhile, we will investigate complaints of this kind of discrimination in employment cases."