When Anti-Discrimination Law Discriminates: A Right to Transgender Dignity in Disability Law

Abstract

This note examines the claim that the exclusion of gender identity disorders from the Americans with Disabilities Act violates the dignitary rights of transgender individuals. In order to do this, this Note discusses the developing concept of dignitary rights, particularly in the context of the Supreme Court's many references to dignity in its LGBT jurisprudence, and concludes that the exclusion is unconstitutional because it violates the dignity of transgender individuals by stigmatizing them and preventing them from seeking access to anti-discrimination protection to which they may otherwise be entitled.