The Pima County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to add gender identity and expression to the county’s non-discrimination policy.
The effort, pushed by the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and Service Employees International Union of Arizona, was in the works for five months.
During the May discussions for the new Memorandum of Understanding—an annual meeting process between SEIU Arizona (the union that bargains on behalf of county workers) members and leaders, and Pima county management—the advocacy groups presented the board with several proposals to increase protections for transgender workers, as well as to start offering paid parental leave, and other issues affecting county employees.
“It means that no person can be denied employment or a promotion, or otherwise be discriminated against, because someone else doesn’t think they look the way they are ‘supposed’ to, look or act in a manner they are ‘supposed’ to act…that is what gender identity and expression are about,” Abby Jensen, vice president and general counsel for SAGA, and an assistant Pima County public defender, told the Weekly. “This protection is not just for transgender people. It protects everyone from being discriminated against.”
The groups also had private meetings with the supervisors, and Jensen says it was a grand success to have all of them come on board. Some, such as Supervisor Ally Miller, even wondered why the county didn’t offer these gender identity and expression protections before.
This is a big win, but the next major step is to have the county stop excluding transition-related coverage from its healthcare’s policy.
Yesterday’s vote also opened up the conversation to eventually offer county employees paid parental leave. The board said it would vote on that issue in January.
“Today was a victory for Pima County, working people, and taxpayers” said a statement by Art Mendoza, president of SEIU Arizona. “This MoU makes the county more attractive to the best and brightest potential employees and helps to retain the quality employees we already have. Our union and our allies look forward to working with Pima County to implement policies that support working families like paid parental leave and are thrilled we could win new protections for transgender employees in our community.”
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2015.
Thank God the leaders of the 5th poorest area in the country are working on such important matters that affect so many that live here, well, at least 4 or 5.
Not sure where you get your data from, What, but I’m pretty sure it’s next to your commode.
SEIU is the PAC for the Democratic Party. The coming budget shortfall will take care of the over benefited and over employed government positions.
This should be interesting. Why is it necessary to put gender identity on anything? So instead of being hired or promoted based on your skills or work ethic it will depend on if you identify as a transgender or gay and the straight people will be left out of jobs so no one will cry discrimination.
Skin color still trumps the rest. So much for respecting memory of MLK.
Pima county spending time on this issue, this discrimination should go without saying. Wasting tax people’s money on this, I’m sure they could have used their time working on something else. Here we stupidity again.
Trainmanswife: nowhere does it say anyone is getting preferential treatment for jobs. It’s saying no one can be fired or discriminated against because of their gender identity. Stop acting like heterosexual people are an endangered species on the verge of extinction.
I don’t think anyone should be fired or discriminated against for anything not directly related to their job performance.
Still, I don’t get this requiring everyone to treat you as a woman (or visa versa) when you’re not. Sorry you’re birth sex didn’t work out for you, and you should be able to behave effeminately even if you’re a guy without people being assholes to you, but facts are stubborn things.
I identify as 6’4″ with wavy brown hair and washboard abs and I expect everyone to treat me that way, especially the ladies.
What nonsense. SO unimportant.
All this does is open up lawsuits to the city/county.
Everybody whining about how this is so unimportant: you are correct! So quit worrying about it, mind your own business and treat others how you would like to be treated. It really is THAT simple!