“I found it a little overwhelming when I realized that I could be in the history books,” Aimee Stephens told me Monday morning. I’d just asked her how she felt about bringing the first transgender rights case to the Supreme Court. “Somebody’s gotta do it and I’d be happy and satisfied to be that person.”
The court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a case that will decide if transgender people are entitled to sex-based protections under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Stephens, the plaintiff in the case, was working as a funeral director and embalmer when she came out as a trans woman in 2013, informing her employer with a letter explaining why her transition was necessary for her quality of life. Shortly thereafter, she was fired. Stephens filed a complaint with the EEOC claiming she was discriminated against because of her sex.
