After losing her job, transgender Utahn fights workplace discrimination

Salt Lake City resident Candice Metzler wanted to let her work colleagues see the transition she already had begun in her personal life. Known to them as a man, Metzler wore mascara, eyeliner and white-tipped acrylic nails to a company barbecue.

Three months later, Metzler, was unemployed and homeless. Although her boss had supported her coming out as transgender, clients began shunning the small, home-inspection enterprise after the picnic. The struggling business let Metzler go.

She felt the sting of discrimination more sharply, she said, as she applied to job after job in the construction industry but was turned down. She lost her home and lived on the streets for nearly a year. She finally found a job as a receptionist.

Her experience highlights the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers, who, in Utah, are not protected against discrimination in the workplace by local, state or federal laws.

Metzler is staging a community forum on the topic tonight at Salt Lake City's Main Library.

"We can get past the issue of who's going to use a bathroom," she said. "As individuals, we know who we are. We don't have to have someone tell us who we are. Fairness giving people that respect."

Metzler's story is not uncommon.

In 2007, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Utah Transit Authority's decision to fire a transgender bus driver after she asked to use women's restrooms.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13162500

The law can not compel clients to use a particular company outside of a franchise situation.