Recent case law continues to develop the scope of legal protections for transgender individuals. One month after a Texas court enjoined the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") from enforcing its 2021 guidance protecting transgender individuals, the Fourth Circuit has recognized gender dysphoria as a disability protected by the Americans with Disability Act ("ADA").
In Williams v. Kincaid, Kesha Williams, a transgender woman with gender dysphoria, filed suit against the Sheriff of Fairfax County alleging violations of the ADA stemming from her treatment as an inmate at a Virginia detention center. Williams was housed in the men's unit of the facility, faced delayed access to her prescribed hormone therapy medication, and was denied various accommodations she had requested relating to her gender dysphoria. The district court dismissed her claim, holding that it failed to state grounds for relief and that gender dysphoria is not a disability under the ADA.
The Fourth Circuit reversed. Although the statutory text of the ADA excludes "gender identify disorders not resulting from physical impairments" from the statutory definition of disability, the court concluded that gender dysphoria is different than gender identity disorder. Gender dysphoria is defined as the "clinically significant distress" felt by individuals who experience incongruity between their gender identity and assigned sex. Gender dysphoria is thus categorized by extreme distress. In addition, it...
Congress leaders Harshwardhan Sapkal and Nana Patole, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) legislator Rohit Pawar, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said PM Modi's sp...