FARGO – A discrimination lawsuit brought by a transgender woman against her employer, Sanford Health, has been settled.

Federal Magistrate Judge Alice R. Senechal announced the settlement Wednesday, Aug. 17.

Faye T. Seidler, who grew up in Fargo, alleged that she was not allowed to use the women’s locker room while working at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo from spring 2014 to spring 2015, according to the complaint she filed in December.

Sanford filed a reply in January that Seidler was transitioning in that time and had opted for a unisex locker room. When she asked for access to the women’s locker room in November 2014, she told management she could wait until May. She quit before that happened, according to Sanford’s reply.

Joshua Newville, Seidler’s Minneapolis-based attorney, said neither he nor his client would discuss the details of the settlement. “I can just confirm that we have indeed reached an agreement that will resolve the matter to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”

In response to a request for comment, including details of Sanford’s current transgender policy, Sanford Chief Marketing Officer Cindy Morrison released a statement: “Sanford’s employment policies prohibit discrimination of any kind including gender identity. We update policies and provide continuing education for staff on a regular basis. Every situation is unique, and we address each employee on an individual basis. Sanford follows all applicable federal laws.”

In transition

When Seidler was hired, she went by Brandon but had already been undergoing hormone therapy for several months to transition to female, according to her complaint. In May, she told management that she was a female and would begin presenting herself as such at work.

The complaint said she initially told management that, while she had the right to use the women’s locker room, she would avoid it during her transition. In November 2014, she began asking management for access to the women’s locker room, but couldn’t get a response, the complaint said. By that time, Sanford had changed its classification of Seidler to female, consistent with changes to her birth certificate, driver’s license and other government documents, Seidler’s complaint said.

Sanford said in its reply that’s not how it happened.

Seidler told her supervisor in May “she was concerned about her access to the women's locker room if she had a surgical change,” but didn’t reveal that she was making a legal change to her gender until October, Sanford said. She then said in an email she’d forego use of the women’s locker room so other employees could accept her transition.

Later in the month, she said in another email she wanted to set a date to access to the women’s locker room, but “could wait until May,” Sanford alleged. A human resources official replied to this email, the content of which wasn’t revealed in Sanford’s filing, but Seidler replied, "Thank you for continuing to work with me on this, it means a lot to me!”

The official later said in February that she was still working on access, but expected it would be available sometime between March and May. Seidler quit in March.

Seidler’s complaint further alleged that her supervisor expressed exasperation at her requests to be treated as a female and told other employees that the supervisor didn’t “feel it should be in our department no different [sic] that the [sic] life style choices of a gay, lesbian, or promiscuous heterosexuals.”

Sanford said the supervisor was annoyed that Seidler took offense to people saying “hey, you guys.” Sanford said the supervisor, a woman, didn’t consider “you guys” to be gender specific. It said the supervisor was “coached” to assure employees there was no discrimination.

Seidler quits

Seidler said in her complaint that she quit her job at Sanford, “feeling that she was unable to continue working in a workplace environment that didn’t fully treat her in a manner consistent with her sex/gender equally to other employees.”

Sanford said Seidler quit because her “excessive use of unplanned time off” would soon lead to her firing; she had 112 hours of unplanned time off. In her resignation letter, Seidler said she worried she would be fired “the next time I am sick” and that she was unhappy with Sanford’s lack of a specific transgender policy.

Seidler also asked Sanford to consider changing all men’s and women’s restrooms to unisex restrooms.

Seilder’s LinkedIn page states she is an activist with the Pride Collective and Community Center

in Fargo where she runs the Trans Mentor Program, which helps transgender people and their friends understand what they’re going through.

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