This article Copyright © 1995-1998 PlanetOut Corporation. Their news page is at http://www.planetout.com/pno/newsplanet/.

NewsPlanet Staff
Monday, June 1, 1998

Summary: Testimony that a transsexual pilot's "flaunting it" was a safety hazard didn't fly with a British industrial tribunal, which found that the rejection of her job application was clearly discrimination.

Transsexual Kristina Sheffield, whose case against Britain is awaiting judgment by the European Court of Human Rights, has won her employment discrimination claim before a British industrial tribunal. Despite more than 34 years' experience, Sheffield was not given an interview when she made two applications to pilot for Easyjet when it was recruiting in 1996; she received no explanation of the rejection at the time or in repeated attempts over months afterwards.

In its defense, Air Foyle Charter Airlines (which had held the operating license for Easyjet at the time) presented recruiting officer Captain Michael Veal, who had worked with Sheffield at another airline a decade before, and based on that experience said that Sheffield, "tended to be very forceful and...flaunted her femininity which made people feel uncomfortable" and that she "was unable to work in a team, was hazardous to safety, that she flaunted her femininity and that pilots were unable to fly with her." The tribunal rejected that testimony, finding there was nothing in her work history to make her unsuitable for an interview, and concluded that, "It follows that the applicant has been treated less favorably on the ground of her transsexuality and that this amounts to less favourable treatment on the ground of her sex." A financial settlement in the case is still to be determined. It's been a challenge for Sheffield to find employment as a pilot since she left Brittania Airways in 1986 following her sex reassignment surgery -- Sheffield says she was fired, Brittania says she left by "mutual agreement" -- even though Sheffield had been under consideration for promotion to a command position.

Sheffield's EuroCourt case, which was brought in conjunction with Rosa Horsham and argued in February, challenges Britain's policy against issuing new birth certificates following sex reassignments as a violation of privacy rights. Britain is the only European nation which will not issue new birth certificates showing the new names and genders of those who have undergone sex reassignment.
 

More. . .

Christine Burns, of the UK's Press for Change, informs us about these links:

On the Press For Change website, a feature about the Sheffield and Horsham cases at http://www.pfc.org.uk/news/1998/sh-index.htm

Case reports of the European Commission of Human Rights:
    for Rachel Horsham: http://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr/eng/23390REP.htm
    for Kristina Sheffield: http://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr/eng/22985REP.htm

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