Eastern Air Lines Boeing 757 [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Karen Frances Ulane - then known as Kenneth Ulane - was hired as a pilot in 1968 by Eastern Airlines. Fired in 1981, she filed a charge of sexual discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later filed suit in a U.S. District Court.

Ulane alleged that she was discriminated against as a transgender woman in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of Ulane. However, the case was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where the District Court’s decision was reversed.

Below is a sample of the transcript from the District Court proceedings:

Click here for further pages from this testimony. Additional case documents are available here. The text of the Court of Appeals judgment is available here.