How Gender Discrimination Law Applies When You Do Not Self-Ascribe To Any Gender

Gender neutrality has created a whole new set of issues for gender discrimination law services. Not ascribing any gender to oneself is within your own right, but when you're discriminated against anyway, your gender discrimination lawyer has to decide how best to approach this case. Here is how gender neutrality affects cases like yours. 

Trying to Determine If the Discrimination Was Based on Your Non-Gender or Your Appearance

First and foremost, your lawyer has to determine if you experienced discrimination based on your appearance, or based on your proclamation of non-gender. Most cases of discrimination involve one gender or the other in a binary gender world, and your lawyer will have to look at that first. If you look like you are female or look like you are male, is the discrimination you experienced based on your appearance alone? If it can be determined that you were a victim of discrimination based on an outward appearance of male or female, then your lawyer will begin with this approach in your case, even if you do not identify as either binary gender. 

If the employer or proprietor discriminated against you because you were not identifying as either gender or you checked "other" on the application box, then the lawyer can start from here instead of having to lead into it. Your lawyer will have to show how your decision to identify as "other" or "non-gender" led to the discrimination. That is not easy because this kind of discrimination is rather new to legal defense cases. 

It Is Still Discrimination Regardless of How You Identify Yourself

Your lawyer will show the flip side of the non-gender coin, where other people identify not as their cis-gender persons, but as the opposite sex. Pointing out that these people are not experiencing (or are experiencing) discrimination for the same jobs and lodgings shows that your choice to avoid identifying as any gender should be treated the same. No one should be excluded from a job opportunity or an apartment because someone else does not like how an applicant or possible tenant presents him/herself. 

Winning Your Case

This is not going to be an easy case. There are not a lot of precedents set for it. You will also have to decide what you expect to get from a lawsuit. Do you want the lodging or job that was offered, or do you just want to be compensated for infringement of your civil liberties? That is what your lawyer will pursue. 


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