HR handed an employee a form comparing being gay & trans to pedophilia (California) (
self.legaladvice)
submitted 18 hours ago * by
-Historical-Lime-
EDIT: Can't change title, to remove all ambiguity here's an updated title:
"HR hands employee a form that classifies "pedophillia" and "homosexuality" as "sexual behavior disorders" and includes the slur "transvestism"
My partner is an autistic trans man. He was trying to get a very simple disability accomadation: transcription software for zoom meetings as autism causes him to have auditory processing issues. He requested this months ago.
After constantly forgetting then actively trying to discourage him from requesting an accomadation for months, they finally gave him a disability form to fill out and I was genuinely speechless. One section reads like it hasn't been altered since the 1970's. This is the exact wording, all under offical company letterhead (emphasis mine):
"The following are excluded from the mental & physical conditions described above:
transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyuerism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or
other sexual behavior disorders; homosexuality, bisexuality, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, or psychoactive substance use disorders resulting from current unlawful use of controlled substances or other drugs"
Obviously upset about being handed a form with multiple slurs & basically calling him a pedophile that suggests being gay & trans are a disorders on par with pedophilia, my partner went straight back to HR. They agreed to change it, of course, but the employee he told the issue about apparently lodged a complaint against him because she felt "uncomfortable" with how "hostile" he was. Again,
my partner is autistic & is just blunt, he had absolutely no intention of making her uncomfortable & was just upset by the situation. He literally said just said "this form has fucking slurs on it" but monotone/ with a blunt affect because, ya know, he's autistic. (his boss & most of the office quite literally say "fuck" all of the time, for context).
Inexplicably, HR thought it would be a good idea to just take the other employee's word for it that my partner was "too hostile" and pulled him into their office to get
mad at him. I cannot tell you how furious this situation makes me.
This isn't even the first time he has been bullied by HR; his managers fucked up by creating his position in the first place & rather than take responsibility & just let him go, they have been attempting to fire him with cause, misgendering him & treating him like shit for things that are blatantly his manager's fault through the whole thing (he has been told to "manage up", whatever tf that means). This is just the most egregious BS that has happened to him.
So does my partner have a case against this organization? Would it be worth him consulting a lawyer?
EDIT 1: for typos & took out last paragraph which was motivated by me being upset on my partner's behalf more than anything & not relevant. I'm on mobile so sorry for the awful formatting.
EDIT 2: "basically calling him a pedophile" were my words, not his. I reworded it to say what I meant. I also feel I should clarify here: the "this form has fucking slurs on it" was a part of a larger conversation he was having with the HR person. He was in no way blaming her & thanked her for listening to his concerns. He thought the conversation ended on a good note & got his point across well about why he was so distraught.
It is very common for autistic people to be completely misinterpreted as being hostile due to difficulty modulating inflection & tone of voice. Inability to read subtle social cues is part of what makes autism disabling. One comenter said they have borderline personality disorder which can cause them to "act like a bitch". Yeah, well "acting like a bitch" isn't a clinical symptom. Misreading social cues (such as believing "fuck" was an acceptable word when his boss literally used it in a group chat a half hour earlier & says it constantly) & not being able to properly modulate one's inflection are
actual clinical signs of autism. Again, in no way did he fly off the handle or scream at her. That of course would be unacceptable no matter someone's disability.
In fact, he was genuinely shocked and upset at the possibility that he made anyone feel uncomfortable. I also feel it is important to note that he is literally 5'1" and the least intimidating human on the planet. Also he unfortunately does not pass, so he is socially read as a woman by the majority of people right now. I feel like this adds further context to the "hostile" comment, as some were understandably thinking this HR woman felt genuinely a little rattled by a big, intimidating dude speaking harshly at her.
EDIT 3: Okay uh guess comments are locked for now, but yeah I do understand now that this is the exact language of the ADA in 1990, thank you all. I am still upset and appalled at the organization's choice to include this language in their forms when California has a
free form for employeers to give to employees to have their doctors fill out. The form my partner got handed was needlessly lengthy and clearly needed to be looked over more carefully. Why include a bit of the statute that uses such outdated and awful language when a simpler, free form already exists?
I probably should have also included some other facts. I'm just not a lawyer & was just so shocked by the language I thought for sure that'd cause the most legal issues, however this organization tried to discipline my partner over the meeting notes he took
after he had asked for accomadations for the second time (he was waiting for them to give him more info on forms to fill out to get accomadations/ next steps when they punished him), and now I'm starting to see that's definitely the bigger legal issue here & where I should have started.
Frankly that isn't even all they've done to him at this job, this was just the straw that broke the camel's back for me as his partner having to watch him suffer for months.