News has come of a transgender man in Canada who is refusing a settlement which would silence him from telling the story of his discrimination:
Last September, the school board offered Buterman $78,000 cash — approximately a teacher’s salary — along with a one-year teaching job in exchange for dropping the complaint. The settlement came with a confidentiality agreement which stipulated he could no longer talk about the complaint or refer to the incident.
Buterman didn’t want to give up talking about the case, since it involves documented proof of anecdotal experiences of many transgender people.
I think that’s pretty awesome, and more power to Butterman. Unfortunately, for financial reasons, it does look like this will be the end of his case against the school: “Buterman’s lawyers have advised him refusing the offer would result in the school board moving to dismiss the complaint because a “fair and reasonable” settlement has been put on the table.”
I want to applaud Butterman for not only standing up to the school, but refusing to accept a settlement which would silence him. I’m always frustrated when I hear stories of injustice silenced after a we-didn’t-do-anything-wrong-even-though-we’re-paying-you-off ‘settlement.’ (I’m not faulting folks who take those settlements, I just wish they weren’t so common.) There’s a good expansion of the issues over at Dented Blue Mercedes.
PS – Check out Show Me Your Feminism, a Tumblr project by a Than Blog reader. (Feel free to take credit in the comments – wasn’t sure how public you wanted your involvement.)
I just got off the phone with the lawyer I’ve been working with on my job discrimination. The good news is the principal at Neal was super-receptive to having a meeting, and seemed eager to bring in other administrators and staff to make sure it’s effective. Hopefully the meeting will go well, and in a perfect world I’d be hired to train the staff, parents, and students on LGBT inclusion, perhaps in association with the incomparably awesome Safe School Alliance.
The frustrating part? The principal claimed this was the first he’d ever heard of the issue, and it must have been the Boys and Girls Club saying these things. (Despite the fact they’re hiring Piven – and by extension me – for a workshop starting next week.) Now, in all fairness, it’s possible he either doesn’t remember, or another administrator was the one who actually said something on the principal’s behalf without his knowledge. But still…
All in all, though, I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ll keep you posted in the coming weeks.
I currently have a COBRA extension of my dad’s insurance plan, because I aged out of being covered under him. It’s, fortunately, been pretty great coverage (and it should be at ovr $350 a month!) and I haven’t had any trouble with getting transition-related expenses covered.
Unfortunately, my coverage recently changed. Everything’s still covered, I just have higher deductables and copays. Not the end of the world, but obnoxious.
It made me decide to reapply for an individual plan, which has just been a bag of fun…
Continue reading 'Health insurance'»
We have a non-discrimination policy for our classes which is printed in our brochure and previously read “[we don't discrminiate] on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status.” I’d asked my boss before about including gender identity on the list (after praising him for including sexual orientation) and never heard back, so I assumed he hadn’t done it and I’d have to bug him again before the next session.
But today we got the brochure proof and low-and-behold: “[we don't discrminiate] on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or veteran status.” (Emphasis added.)
It’s pretty neat to feel like you’ve made a difference, even a little one.
-R
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Themocracy