The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has ruled against Naz Fitness Group in Framingham for firing Jackie Ravesi, a transgender woman, five years ago. The company has been ordered to pay $154,850 in back pay losses in addition to $25,000 in emotional distress damages.
When Ravesi was first hired by Naz as a trainer in 2009, she still largely “presented as a male” and complied with the company’s dress code. In 2010, she announced her intentions to transition, which coincided with a sudden spate of negative performance reviews and a cut in her hours. A week after she wore a woman’s black velour sweat suit to a company meeting, owner Glenn Nazarian ordered the studio manager to fire her. He testified that she seemed “burnt out or lost” and could not rise to the occasion to “display energy and enthusiasm when training clients.”
But hearing officer Betty Waxman pointed out that Nazarian relied on criteria like “anonymous customer criticisms,” “subjective characterizations” about her shortcomings, and criticism of her appearance outside of work. Noting the change to female appearance after her hiring, Waxman concluded that Ravesi’s transition “played the primary role in her termination.” Nazarian presented no written complaints or testimony from dissatisfied customers during the hearing.
The company announced it plans to appeal. The company’s attorney, John W. Davis, argued that there was even a former employee who is also gender non-conforming that testified that Nazarian “would be the last person to discriminate.” This likely refers to Faith Kenyon, the sister of Nazarian’s girlfriend. In the decision, Waxman described her as testifying that “Nazarian harbored no animus against androgynous or ‘butch’ females such as herself,” which Waxman considered irrelevant to the dispute.
Nevertheless, the win is a small but significant victory for transgender people, 90 percent of whom have experience harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination in the workplace and who face unemployment rates double that of the general public. According to a 2011 survey, 26 percent report losing a job just because of their gender identity, and 47 percent percent have experienced some form of adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not being hired, or being denied a promotion.
The victory is also a reminder that such discrimination can play out even in a state thought to be more accepting like Massachusetts. Though Massachusetts offers statewide nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity for employment and housing, it does not protect transgender people from discrimination in public accommodations.