Groundspark

News from around the world that directly connects to the issues GroundSpark works on in our Respect for All Project!

Army Vet Wins $500K Sex-Change Lawsuit

Diane Schroer, an army vet, was offered a terrorism analyst job at the Library of Congress– only to have the offer pulled when she told a Library official that she was transitioning.

“U.S. District Judge James Robinson ruled Tuesday that Schroer was entitled to $491,190 in back pay and damages because of sex discrimination. The Library of Congress and the Justice Department argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act…Paul Cates with the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project said the ruling was significant because a federal judge said that discriminating against someone for changing genders is sex discrimination under federal law.”

‘No Child’ Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap

The achievement gap between white and minority students has not narrowed in recent years, despite the focus of the No Child Left Behind law on improving the scores of blacks and Hispanics, according to results of a federal test considered to be the nation’s best measure of long-term trends in math and reading proficiency.

Court Lets Private Schools Expel Lesbians

“The state Supreme Court left intact Wednesday a lower-court ruling that said a private religious high school wasn’t covered by California civil rights law and could expel students it believed were lesbians.

Over Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar’s dissent, the court denied review of an appeal by parents of two girls who were expelled from a
high school in Riverside County. A lawyer for the parents said the ruling, which is binding on trial courts statewide, would allow
private schools to discriminate against students on any basis they chose, including sex and religion.

The girls were juniors at California Lutheran High School in the town of Wildomar when the principal, Gregory Bork, called them to his
office in September 2005 and questioned them separately about their sexual orientation, after another student reported postings on their
MySpace pages.”

Tags: Civil Rights, education, expel, lawsuits, lesbian, Library of Congress, No Child Left Behind, racial disparity, schools, sexual orientation, transitioning, transsexual