Campus Notebook: Vindicated

Posted April 29, 2009 at 6:34pm

A federal judge ordered the Library of Congress to pay about $490,000 in reparations to a transgender woman who recently won a discrimination lawsuit against the agency.

[IMGCAP(1)]In July 2005, Diane Schroer — then David John Schroer — was offered a position as a senior terrorism researcher at the LOC’s Congressional Research Service. But when she told her new employers she would show up to work as a woman, they rescinded the offer.

Schroer has argued that the decision caused a series of professional and emotional problems, which were made worse because she had gone public with her transgender plans when she learned she was hired. In the years afterward, she found it difficult to find a steady job because of the stigma associated with being transgender.

In a decision released earlier this week, District Judge James Robertson wrote that Schroer’s testimony provided “ample support for the maximum reward.— That includes $180,000 in back pay and $300,000 in compensation.

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