Tennessee fighting court ruling that said people couldn't be fired for being transgender

Adam Tamburin | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption What does being transgender mean? People who are called "transgender" have a gender identity or expression that differs from the gender typically associated with the sex that they were assigned at birth.

Tennessee is one of 16 states fighting against a federal ruling that said transgender people could not be fired because of their gender identity.

The ruling, from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, said that federal anti-discrimination laws protect transgender people. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III disagreed with the ruling, and joined other states asking for a reversal from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Sixth Circuit ruling held that a Michigan funeral home violated the Civil Rights Act by firing a transgender employee because she was transgender. The federal law prohibits discrimination based on “sex” — the court ruled that included gender identity.

Slatery blasted the decision as overly broad.

“The Sixth Circuit’s decision ... essentially rewrote federal law,” Slatery said in a statement. “Unless and until Congress affirmatively acts to change (the law), it is up to the states, not the federal judiciary, to determine which protections, or not, should flow to individuals based on gender identity.”

Slatery signed onto a court filing asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling and "to correct the Sixth Circuit’s egregious error."

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and atamburin@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @tamburintweets.