Bill would require transgender-rights training for CA employers

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Postcards at the SF LGBT Center on Friday, June 30, 2017, in San...

Transgender and gender-nonconforming employees will receive greater and more explicit protections this week as new California employment regulations take effect Saturday.

But some worry the new regulations might put employers in a difficult place: wanting to do right by their employees and follow the law, but lacking the resources — and the training — to do so.

That’s why state Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County), gutted his own higher education bill to put forth a new proposal that would institute mandatory workplace training around gender identity and expression in the same way that sexual-harassment training is required today.

Gender identity refers to the gender a person uses to identify themselves — male, female or neither, an identity more commonly known as genderqueer or nonbinary — while gender expression has to do with how a person presents themselves in dress, speech or behavior.

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Clair Farley stands for a portrait at the SF LGBT Center on Friday,...

Both gender identity and gender expression have been protected classes under California’s antidiscrimination law since 2011, but the state’s new workplace guidelines, which take effect Saturday, flesh out how employers should apply those protections to workers.

Lara, whose new rewritten bill, SB396, was released Thursday, said he was overwhelmed by how many transgender and gender-nonconforming Californians struggle to find, and maintain, a job.

More than 75 percent of transgender Californians have experienced mistreatment or harassment at work, according to a 2016 national survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. A quarter were fired or denied a promotion due to their gender identity or expression and about half were not hired in the first place.

“We had been doing research for some time in our office about the access to jobs and financial security for our transgender brother and sisters, and the data is just eye-opening,” Lara said.

According to a 2008 report by the Transgender Law Center, the most recent of its kind, 1 in 4 transgender Californians surveyed reported earning wages below the national poverty line.

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For transgender people of color, rates of discrimination, unemployment and poverty rise across the board.

“You have trans folks of color, folks with disabilities, there can be a lot of barriers to finding employment,” said Clair Farley, the director of economic development at the SF LGBT Center. “When folks transition on the job, they tend to leave their workplace — whether voluntarily or not — and that can really increase their risk for continued unemployment.”

California’s new regulations, instituted and created by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, are the latest effort to expand the reach of California’s employment-antidiscrimination statute.

Under the new rules, employers must give transgender and gender-nonconforming employees access to restrooms, showers and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. Businesses must allow employees to go by their preferred name and pronouns — even if their name hasn’t yet been legally changed — and the rules outlaw discrimination against individuals in the process of transitioning, or beginning to live outwardly as the gender with which the person identifies.

They also touch on issues such as dress codes. Unless the business can make the case for why it is an absolute necessity, managers may not impose any grooming or dress standards on a person inconsistent with that individual’s gender identity or gender expression.

Clair Farley stands for a portrait at the SF LGBT Center on Friday, June 30, 2017, in San Francisco, Calif. Farley, a transgender woman, is the director of economic development at the center. Clair Farley stands for a portrait at the SF LGBT Center on Friday, June 30, 2017, in San Francisco, Calif. Farley, a transgender woman, is the director of economic development at the center. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Bill would require transgender-rights training for CA employers 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

“Where we have seen this come up as an issue a lot is when someone is nonconforming, but they may be perceived their gender expression is male, and then they’re being told they need to ascribe to a certain standard of male dress code,” Farley said. “What this policy says is there needs to be accommodations for that. A conversation needs to happen where the employee can decide what uniform makes sense for them.”

Douglas Biederbeck, who owns several San Francisco restaurants, including Florio, Marketbar and Bix, said restaurants are usually accommodating to people who feel uncomfortable in a particular uniform because of their gender identity or expression — or just because of their body type. His restaurants institute rules about appearance across the board, regardless of gender identity or expression, he said.

“We don’t say men cannot wear nail polish any more than we say men cannot wear a necklace or earrings,” Biederbeck said. “If we find people are too extravagant in their display, we may counsel the employee and say, ‘Look, you might think it looks great to have 16 loops through your nose, but male or female or in between, it’s going to get in the way and be distracting at your job. It’s too much.’ But, you know, this is San Francisco and just about anything goes, as long as it’s not offensive to customers.”

The new guidelines are meant to clarify the law and ensure that business owners are following it with regard to transgender and gender-nonconforming workers, officials said. They’re also meant to inform those workers of what their rights are.

Lara’s bill would mandate “employers with 50 or more employees to include, as a component of that prescribed (sexual harassment) training … training inclusive of harassment based on gender identity, expression and sexual orientation.”

The bill does not specify what kind of training it would be, but suggests it use practical, real-life examples of what is — and is not — legal.

“When we do our training with businesses, we usually start by asking, ‘How many of you have ever met or have a friend who is transgender?’ It’s usually about 80 to 90 percent have not,” said Michaela Mendelsohn, a transgender activist, restaurant owner and founder of TransCanWork.org. “So part of this training is really just breaking the ice and getting them to meet someone who is transgender. That alone can really open hearts and minds.”

Lara’s legislation would also require workplaces to post a poster outlining the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming workers “in a prominent and accessible location” for all to see.

Activists and officials said the new regulations, if approved, could impact workplaces far beyond the Golden State.

“Often, when large employers have to comply with California requirements, they extend those practices to their offices in other parts of the country,” said Rick Zbur, the executive director of Equality California. “It’s very likely that these regulations will be reviewed by other states looking to do similar things.”

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae