Judge: cross-dressers not protected by sex discrimination law: A trucker fired because he wears women's clothes after hours is not protected by the federal law against sex discrimination, a federal judge has ruled. Congress has refused 31 times to amend the law to ban discrimination because of gender or sexual identity, and it is not the federal court's job to dictate policy, U.S. District Judge Lance Africk ruled. Winn-Dixie Louisiana Inc. had a legal right to fire Peter Oiler after he told a supervisor he went out one to three times a month as "Donna," dressed in wig, makeup, breast pads, and women's clothes, Africk said.

Ever notice how, when it's a law that the judge doesn't agree with and can justify his decision, the law falls or the plaintiff wins, but when it's something else, it's suddenly "not the court's job to dictate policy"? Whether they should or not, the courts dictate policy all the time. But I digress, if one can be said to digress when one hasn't properly started.

In any event, the judge's reasoning for dismissal is not terribly surprised. I noted some months ago that the discrimination laws that Oiler was using didn't seem to cover his case. And I continue to feel that Oiler was badly represented by the ACLU; this is a case that absolutely should have gone to jury trial if Winn Dixie decided not to settle. The jury would have heartily disliked both sides, but it's fairly likely that they would have felt that Winn Dixie had no right to regulate what Oiler did in his off hours. (And then, based on what actually happened in the case, the judge would have set the decision aside because the jury could not have decided that way, given the facts of the case and the laws at issue.) The ACLU can cite other states' protection of gender identity all it wants; the fact remains that Louisiana has not done so -- and with a sodomy law on the books, could hardly do so -- and the federal government has, according to the judge, repeatedly and emphatically and, most important, explicitly declined to do so, thereby limiting the reach of the laws under which Oiler sued.