Subject: TRANSEXUAL WOMAN SUES FEDERAL EXPRESS in $5 MM HARASSMENT SUIT
From: Riki Anne Wilchins <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 1995 20:15:57 -0500

PRESS RELEASE: 
 
Contact - Riki Anne Wilchins / [email-masked] / (212)645-1753 
 
TRANSEXUAL WOMAN SUES FEDERAL EXPRESS in $5 MM HARASSMENT SUIT 
 
(New York City - November 9, 1995) 
Diane Rousseau today filed a groundbreaking $5,000,000 lawsuit against
Federal Express today, alleging on-the-job harassment by staff and
employees forced her to leave an 8-year position as a computer technician. 
Rousseau's suit alleges that following a sex change operation in 1993,
coworkers "routinely ridiculed, harassed and abused" her, including one
supervisor who called her "an abomination to God."  Federal Express
allegedly responded an incrasingly hostile work environment by threatening
Rousseau with dismissal if she appeared at work as a woman, eventually
placing her under a gag order which promised "serious consequences" if she
spoke out about her abuse.  Under escalating pressure, Rousseau finally
quit in November of 1994. 
 
Declared New York attorney Hal Weiner, who filed the $5,000,000 suit: "It
is not a legal option open to Federal Express to mandate the sex of its
employees, or to create a hostile work environment for Diane merely because
she isn't the type of stereotypic female it thinks she should be. 
Employees with Gender Dysphoria owe no apologies or explanations to an
employer than those with a heart ailment." 
 
The Transexual Menace (NYC chapter) is planning a combined demonstration
and press conference on Rousseau's.  Said a spokestrans for the Menace: "No
one should have to endure threats, ridicule, or workplace abuse simply
because they are transexual.  This is a woman who had an exemplary record
of promotion and service.  Transexual employees should be judged like
everyone else: on the merits of their job performance, not on Federal
Express's opinion of their gender." 
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