By E.A. Zott*
In recent years, legislation targeting transgender individuals has increased exponentially nationwide. As a result, an increasing number of transgender employees must decide between being comfortable in their own skin or being safe in their workplace. Even where legislation does not explicitly restrict how a transgender employee can show up to work, the intersection of facially neutral, broadly written caselaw and anti-transgender policies can create additional challenges for transgender employees.
This Article looks at one such intersection, examining the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Green v. Finkelstein, where the court found effective office management can outweigh a public employee’s interest in freedom of speech if the employee’s speech frustrated the office’s mission, thus eliminating First Amendment protection for the employee. Specifically, this Article examines how the broad language of the Green decision creates a work environment where transgender public employees must exercise extreme care in what they say about their experiences.