BEIJING, July 3 (TMTPOST) --A Chinese court has ruled in favor of a trans woman who was fired by Chinese e-commerce company Dangdang for her gender identity.
The trans woman employee of Dangdang , surnamed Gao, previously struggled with her biological sex and gender identity and applied for leave for gender reassignment surgery in June 2018.
Gao took a 2-month leave as the hospital advised, which was also approved by her supervisor. However, the company’s employee relation manager had disapproved Gao’s leave application.
Dangdang terminated Gao’s labour contract in early September 2018, claiming that Gao was fired because she was absent from her work. In response, Gao seeked help from labor arbitration and the arbitration decided on September 6, 2018 that the two parties should continue to fulfill the labor contract.
Dangdang disagreed with the decision and subsequently sued Gao, claiming that Gao had gender dysphoria and that other employees were unwilling to work with Gao.
Gao claimed that she was discriminated by Dangdang and was labelled by Dangdang as a person with mental health problems whom other employees could not work with. Gao also claimed that Dangdang said “she should hire her own bodyguard and that she causes problems in regard to bathroom use.”
The court had ruled in favor of Gao in the first trial, believing that Dangdang had illegally terminated her contract and therefore should continue to fulfill its labor contract with Gao. The court upheld the decision in the second trial.
The court stated that Gao is entitled to the right of using bathrooms for females and that other workers at Dangdang should embrace Gao’s new gender identity and work with her with open minds.