CALIFORNIA ALBUM : S.F. Targets Anti-Transgender Bias : City is on verge of enacting a law to protect transsexuals and cross-dressers. But some business owners are outraged.

By RICHARD C. PADDOCK

Dec. 26, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO — Robert Dunne tried hard to live like a man. He got a job in heavy construction and became a skilled sheet-metal worker. He got married--three times. But for nearly 30 years, he knew he wasn’t being true to himself.

Finally, he decided to have a sex change operation, but when word leaked out at his workplace, he found himself without a job. Now Robert has become Roberta, and the onetime hermit has blossomed into an activist fighting discrimination against transsexuals and cross-dressers.

Through the efforts of Dunne and others such as her, San Francisco is on the verge of enacting the toughest law in the nation aimed at protecting the city’s transgender community from discrimination in employment and housing.

Approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this month, the ordinance would add “gender identity” to the list of categories such as race, age and HIV status already protected from discrimination under city law. Mayor Frank Jordan is expected to sign the measure this week, and its euphoric supporters say that the idea soon will spread nationwide.

“It’s not just a San Francisco thing,” Dunne said. “This is an extremely important problem we’re presenting to the whole country. We are educating people that we are like everyone else.”

San Francisco, with a long tradition of tolerance, was among the first in the nation to outlaw discrimination against homosexuals and people with AIDS. But transsexuals and cross-dressers say they have continued to suffer harassment--some of it violent.

The new law would embrace a wide variety of people: transsexuals (whether or not they have had sex change surgery), cross-dressers (the preferred term for transvestites) and hermaphrodites (people born with both male and female sexual organs).

Supporters estimate that the ordinance will cover about 6,000 of San Francisco’s 724,000 residents.

“We are calling for an end to hatred, to abuse, to disrespect,” said Jamison Green, director of FTM International, an association of transsexuals. “We are calling for the right to define ourselves, to say for ourselves who we are.”

Although the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has taken no stand on the measure, some business owners are outraged. They worry that it will force them to employ workers they consider undesirable.

“I am just amazed this city can create new rights for cross-dressers,” said Adam Sparks, owner and manager of the Pacific Bay Hotel. “If someone comes in with a beard and a miniskirt, do I have to hire them? This town has gone nuts.”

Under the law, employers still will be able to reject applicants based on personal appearance, but they will not be allowed to discriminate against workers if the real reason is gender identity, city officials say.

The worst penalty a private employer could face is a formal city finding of discrimination, which then could be used by the employee in a civil lawsuit.

Three cities--Santa Cruz, Seattle and Minneapolis--have adopted similar measures, but San Francisco’s will be the toughest because it also will apply to any company doing business with the city. Companies violating the law could face revocation of their contracts or be banned from city contracts.

The Human Rights Commission, which is expected to vigorously enforce the law, is drafting another ordinance to spell out how the discrimination ban will work, particularly in the area of bathrooms and shower facilities.

The second ordinance, city officials say, will allow transsexuals and cross-dressers to choose which public restroom or dressing room they use, as long as the facilities offer privacy. But in cases where nudity is involved, such as a communal shower or a workplace locker room, a person’s sex organs must match the facility’s sex designation.

Supporters of the law say it is designed, in part, to help educate the public about the transgender community, a group not well understood.

In essence, they say, transgendered people believe that their gender identity does not match their biological characteristics. Gender identity--one’s perception of oneself--should not be confused with sexual orientation--the kind of person one wishes to be intimate with.

“We have been culturally conditioned to believe that gender and sex are the same thing,” wrote Green in an essay published by the city’s Human Rights Commission. “The terms are used interchangeably, but in fact they are very different.”

People who believe that they are the opposite gender have been a part of almost every society throughout history, their advocates say. In modern America, two basic groups come under the umbrella of transgender.

Transsexuals are men and women so unhappy with their biological gender that they have had a sex-change operation or want to have one. Some call the operation “gender confirmation surgery.”

Cross-dressers are people who relieve “gender discomfort” by occasionally dressing in clothes of the opposite sex. Cross-dressers often are men who seek to pass as women, but they also can be “gender-benders,” who do not care whether they appear convincing.

Michelle worked as an emergency medical technician for a San Francisco ambulance company when she began her transition from male to female. Her employer, who was very religious, called her a sinner and a pervert, then fired her.

Michelle appealed to the Human Rights Commission for help. Although her status was not covered by existing laws, the commission staff began investigating. But before the inquiry was finished, Michelle killed herself.

“We found she committed suicide as a result of the stress,” commission representative Cynthia G. Goldstein said.

Michelle’s case was one of about 40 discrimination complaints filed with the commission in the past six years. Convinced that the problem was serious, the commission held a public hearing on the issue last spring and began drafting the ordinance to protect transgendered people.

“People have unfortunate situations arising in their lives from gender identity,” said county Supervisor Terrence Hallinan, who carried the measure before the board. “Some people are using that as an excuse to discriminate against them. We said, ‘Stop that. They are human beings too.’

“It will no longer be politically correct to make fun of transgender people,” the supervisor added.

Many transsexuals say they knew from an early age that they were different from other people and have experienced discrimination all their lives.

Dunne, the sheet-metal worker, recalls going to school at the age of 6 wearing his sister’s clothes. When he tried to get in the sandbox with other boys, they began fighting and ended up tearing off his clothes.

“We’re still fighting over the sandbox,” Dunne said. “This law will protect people like myself. People are going to see it’s OK to include us.”