The Department of Labor has found a new enemy: “The gender binary.” The agency is so distraught over the terms “he” and “she” that it may soon force businesses to incur multi-million dollar costs. President Obama’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was signed into law in 2014 without mentioning “gender identity.” Changes will create new expenses for employers required to comply with regulators’ demands.
New rules were proposed by the agency on Tuesday that would add “sex stereotyping, transgender status, and gender identity” to kinds of discrimination banned by the law, the Washington Free Beacon reported. “Our nation’s workforce system should reflect our commitment to diversity and the idea that America works best when we field a full team,” Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said Tuesday. “Protecting workers from discrimination based on disability, pregnancy, language proficiency, gender identity, and other factors is the right thing to do. This proposed rule provides welcome clarity on how to achieve that in the workforce system.” Removal of the pronouns “he” and “she” was covered in a statement published on The Federal Register. FULL REPORT
