Since so many of our clients are located in Washington, or have an office there, we felt it important to talk about the new Gender Identity rules that went into effect last month.   “Gender identity” is defined as the appearance, expression or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual's assigned gender at birth.  In short, regardless of ones sex at birth, if they tell you they are a female, their gender identity is female.

 

In addition to generally treating such individuals as a protected class, employers may not deny access to restrooms and other gender-specific facilities that are consistent with the employee’s gender identity. In fact, in the case of single occupancy restrooms, employers must change signs that specify a gender to signs that simply say “restroom.” Employers may not permit a hostile environment. Evidence of unlawful harassment and hostile environment include deliberately misusing an individual's preferred name, form of address or gender-related pronoun.