Los Angeles Times (04/25/12) Sam Quinones

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that a gender-based job discrimination complaint filed against the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives by a former soldier and police officer who applied for a job as a man and then transitioned to a female can move forward. The ruling clarifies that rules of employment law apply to transgender people. Jennifer Pizer, legal director of the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, says courts have ruled that transgender people are protected against discrimination under federal law and indicated that practices should change.