8 ms·

I was surprised by the tweet saying she was glad she lived in a state where it was illegal to fire her...does this imply there are states where it would be lega

• blueskin_ 13y ago
  In a significant part of the US, you can fire people with no notice, with no recourse, for any/no reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
  • _delirium 13y ago
    Not for any reason. Even in at-will employment states, you cannot fire someone on the basis that you discovered they are Christian (or Muslim, or Polish, or an Army veteran) and you don't like Christians (or Muslims, or Poles, or vets). Some are federally protected categories (termination on the basis of race/ethnicity/religion/gender is banned nationally under the Civil Rights Act of 1964), while others are prohibited by state laws. The status of firing someone because they are transgender under federal law is in flux; the EEOC issued an interpretation in 2012 that the 1964 ban on gender-related employment discrimination covers employment discrimination on the basis of transgender status, but I'm not sure whether this has been upheld by courts. Of course, you can state no reason, and avoid leaving evidence of your real motivations, which might make it harder to prove: if you fire someone because you discovered they're Polish and you hate Poles, they can only win an unlawful-termination suit if they can prove that was the reason.
    • odiroot 13y ago
      What's up with the Poles? Is it a thing? Just curious, asking as a Pole.
      • rmc 13y ago
        It's probably an example of anti-racism law.
        • viraptor 13y ago
          Poles are not a race though. It's only nationality.
          • _delirium 13y ago
            True, but U.S. anti-discrimination law rarely speaks directly about race, and instead uses the broader phrasing "race, color, or national origin", which covers pretty much anything race- or ethnicity-based.
          • rmc 13y ago
            Polish is an ethnicity, and also national origin. In many places in Europe anti-racism laws don't just say "race", they say "race/ethnicity"
      • aestra 13y ago
        In the United States there has been a long history of discrimination against national origin, especially of recent immigrants. Poles were just used as an example here of a national origin. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment for the most blatant forms.
      • koide 13y ago
        North or South? (I expect he'll say it was just an example, but Freud would disagree)
  • gadders 13y ago
    Which is why unemployment is lower than in Europe.
    • blueskin_ 13y ago
      Europe isn't a country. It's a region with both strong and weak economies. A regional average of unemployment rates is invalid and useless for any meaningful statistics. US: 7.3% Strong economies in europe: UK: 7.5% Germany: 5.2% Denmark: 6.7% Norway: 3.1% Weak economies in europe: Greece 27.3% Spain 26.7% Italy: 12.5% You can't average countries with completely different governments and economies to produce a regional figure, just like an average of the US' and Mexico's (4.25%) would be equally meaningless.
      • chongli 13y ago
        I'm not even sure these numbers are comparable. Who is gathering and reporting the statistics? Are they all using the exact same criteria and methodology? Unemployment is one of the most politically-charged statistics you can find. I'd be shocked if all these countries reported it accurately.
        • protomyth 13y ago
          They are not comparable, nor is the current rate in the US with historic data since the definitions have changed multiple times. It is very much the same with comparing infant mortality since several EU countries count it very differently than the US.
      • gadders 13y ago
        A fair point, but is there an underlying reason (beyond having the Euro) why those economies are weak? The point I was trying to make was an economic one - if it is easier to fire a mistake (either for perfomance or business-reasons), then it makes you more likely to hire people.
        • Xylakant 13y ago
• kubiiii 13y ago
  Maybe more a kind of protection if the mere reason for being fired is the outing as a transgender. In France a pregnant woman has some level of protection concerning her job.
  • aestra 13y ago
    You cannot fire someone for pregnancy status in the US either, that's considered gender discrimination.
• tzs 13y ago
  This site says there are 34 states where you can be fired for being transgendered, and 29 were you can be fired for being gay [1]. It gives a map showing the later. [1] http://www.upworthy.com/29-states-can-fire-you-for-being-gay-is-your-state-one-of-them http://www.upworthy.com/29-states-can-fire-you-for-being-gay...
• morganm 13y ago
  Correct. Only 17 states protect against gender identity discrimination in the private sector. The Wikipedia article has a nice map of what is protected by state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_employment_discrimination_in_the_United_States#State_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_employment_discrimination... Attempts to prohibit discrimination of sexual orientation and gender identity at the federal level (the same as sex, age, handicap, race, color, religion or national origin) via the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) have failed since 1994. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Non-Discrimination_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Non-Discrimination_... for details.
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• cokernel 13y ago
  The wording of https://www.aclu.org/translaw https://www.aclu.org/translaw certainly suggests that many states do not prohibit discrimination against transgender people.
• pstack 13y ago
  Of course. In most states, you can be fired for anything, except race, sex, and religion. And in the rest, good luck proving you were fired for those reasons.