A Dallas Area Rapid Transit committee is expected to vote Tuesday on a proposal to add gender identity to the agency’s employment nondiscrimination policy.
The proposed policy change came about as a result of DART’s alleged discrimination against a transgender bus driver.
Last year, DART attorneys sought to intervene in family court to oppose the employee’s petition for a gender-marker change.
The employee, who’s been with the agency for 25 years, began transitioning in 2003 and had sexual reassignment surgery about three years ago. The employee alleges that DART supervisors have at various times told she couldn’t have long hair, couldn’t wear a dress and couldn’t use women’s restrooms at the bus yard.
Dallas Voice articles about the alleged discrimination prompted an outrcy from the LGBT community, with activists speaking at several DART board meetings earlier this year.
If the policy change is approved by the Economic Opportunity and Diversity Committeee, it will proceed to the full board, which could take a final vote in June. Tuesday’s committee meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. in DART Conference Room C, on the first floor of the agency’s headquarters at 1401 Pacific Ave. in Dallas.
