The US military has long defined Tamara Lusardi’s life. The US air force kid grew up on military bases across the world, worked for the US army for nearly three decades in various capacities, and served a tour of duty during the Gulf war. Lusardi eventually found her calling as a software quality assurance specialist for the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama.



Five years ago, Lusardi decided to transition from a male to female gender identity. But as a transgender woman, superior officers limited her access to the women’s restroom, referred to her by male pronouns and her birth name, and intentionally outed her. Once a respected worker receiving high marks in the workplace, Lusardi says she was ultimately removed from the AMRDEC post she loved because other workers felt uncomfortable. Her once-stellar professional reputation was irreparably damaged, she said.

“It was devastating,” Lusardi said. “I was very passionate about what we were working on. The day they removed me, it was like losing a loved one.”

Left with little recourse over her discrimination, Lusardi filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2012. More than three years after starting the legal process, the agency tasked with overseeing federal anti-discrimination laws this month sided with her in an important decision that protects transgender employees across all federal agencies.

According to the EEOC’s ruling on 1 April, Lusardi encountered harassment that violated gender protections outlined in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The complaint found that army officers had “publicly segregated and isolated [Lusardi] from other employees of her gender and communicated that she was not equal to those other because she is transgender”. As a result, Lusardi faced what the ruling describes as a hostile work environment subjecting her to ridicule and embarrassment.

In late 2010, Lusardi decided to change her name and sex on her personnel records. She soon began to show up at work presented as a woman. She faced routine harassment from some colleagues during her transition. According to the complaint, a superior officer restricted Lusardi from using the women’s bathroom because it “was making people uncomfortable”, despite her legal right to use the facility associated with her gender. Her team’s leader also addressed Lusardi by her former male name, Todd; called her “Sir”; and revealed details about her transition to colleagues or contractors with no prior knowledge of her gender identity decision.

“Think of your dream job, and then going to flip hamburgers,” she said about being squeezed out of her position at AMRDEC, where she started working in 2004. “That was the downside.”

In a statement, Amy Whelan, a senior staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, praised the EEOC for acknowledging harassment faced by transgender employees and for taking action to make sure employers “combat sex discrimination in all of its forms”. Transgender Law Center executive director Kris Hayashi said the ruling could create more awareness about transgender people’s rights and potentially paves the way for additional legal protections.

“This decision ensures that all workers have a fair chance to earn a living and focus on their jobs free from harassment in the workplace,” Hayashi said. “This decision is really groundbreaking in that it confirms that some of the most common forms harassment faced by transgender people on the job, which need to be recognized for what they are, unlawful discrimination.”

According to the Transgender Law Center, army officials have 30 days to ask the EEOC to reconsider its ruling. Army spokesman Wayne V Hall says the military branch will comply with the EEOC decision.

“The US army remains committed to the diverse make-up of our army and the army values where we pledge to treat others with dignity and respect,” Hall said. “That commitment is bolstered by repetitive training ensuring awareness is paramount throughout our formations. Our commitment to army values empowers us to achieve the army’s diversity vision and we will continue striving to achieve that goal daily.”

If the EEOC complaint remains uncontested, army officials will be required to grant Lusardi full access to female facilities, prevent future harassment or retaliatory action, and agree to compensatory damages. AMRDEC managers, civilian employees, and contractors must also undergo Equal Employment Opportunity training.

That is a slightly improved outcome from a ruling of the US Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency responsible for merit system protections, which last year found that the US army illegally discriminated against Lusardi. It required the military branch to mandate gender-identity sensitivity training, but did not require financial compensation for Lusardi.

Ilona Turner, legal director for the Transgender Law Center, says the latest EEOC ruling will only apply to US civilian government employees. It won’t change current military policy banning transgender individuals from uniformed service, Turner says. However, Lusardi says the EEOC ruling remains a vital decision that follows the EEOC’s 2012 Macy v Holder decision; Barack Obama’s 2014 executive order prohibiting discrimination gay or transgender federal employees and contractors, which recently went into effect; and the US Department of Justice’s 2014 memo stating Title VII prohibits gender identity discrimination.

Lusardi hopes the ruling will set a precedent to help make life easier for other transgender men and women. She says other transgender people, ranging from her predecessors who lacked protections to those still struggling with their gender identity, have contacted her to discuss the decision’s importance.

Yet she says many challenges lie ahead for the transgender movement: many individuals need to be educated about transgender men and women and federal policy still let insurers exclude transgender people from most healthcare plans.

In an unrelated change, Lusardi says she’ll soon start a new position in a different US army department that gives her a fresh start. Now with some closure after the EEOC complaint’s outcome, she’s hoping to once again fall in love with her job, just like the one she had before her life took an unexpected turn.

“The army’s big, and there’s a whole bunch of different areas,” Lusardi said. “But I think the new area I’m working for is going to be a little bit better.”