Louise Hannon (centre) An Irish transwoman has been awarded more than $60,000 in what is being lauded as a 'ground breaking' decision against her employer, who asked her to switch to and from a female and male identity on request. Louise Hannon had been employed by Dublin company First Direct Logistics as a Business Development Manager. Hannon claimed that since she told the company that she needed to live in her true identity, conditions were made so intolerable that she was ultimately constructively dismissed. The Irish Times reports when she asked to have her e-mail address changed she was told to complete her sales using her male identity. Subsequently the company director told her she could come to the office dressed as a woman but should change into male clothing and use a male identity when seeing clients. When she found this difficult to comply with, she was ultimately asked to work from home. An equality officer ruled that requesting Hannon to switch between a male and a female identity whenever the company deemed necessary constituted direct discrimination on the gender and disability grounds. The officer also said that the request to work from home was discriminatory on the same grounds. Ireland's Equality Authority Chairperson Angela Kerins said that transsexual people are born into a society that is not structured to cater for their own identity. She said the journey undertaken by transsexual people to recognise their own identity, as being different from their assigned identity, involves a process and decision making that is both courageous and beyond the capacity of many to fully appreciate.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 19th April 2011 - 12:38pm