Ariana Losco,
a transgender woman living in Utah, publicly spoke
on the need to get a law protecting LGBT workers on the
books in her state. Little did she know her voice
would get her fired.
Just two weeks
before Ariana Losco became the first openly transgender
person to speak to the Utah State Legislature, she was fired
from her job. Her task on January 25 was to tell the
conservative state’s legislators why
Utah’s transgender workers needed protections against
employment discrimination. The rights denied her under
Utah’s law allowed her employer the legal upper
hand in firing her without just cause.
Losco spoke on
behalf of Equality Utah about House Bill 89, which would
amend the current anti-discrimination law -- which now
protects against discrimination based on ethnicity,
national origin, sex, age, and disability -- to
include sexual orientation and gender identity.
”You have
to pass House Bill 89,” she told the Legislature.
“The gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
community of Utah is suffering needlessly without
it.”
The Associated
Press released an article on January 9, which detailed a
three-month ordeal between Losco and her allegedly abusive
supervisor. The report named Losco, but not her
company, Rocky Mountain Care located in Tooele, Utah.
Losco’s supervisor, later identified as Tammy Remick,
informed her that she had brought embarrassment to Rocky
Mountain, which refused to comment for this story.
Losco said that
in the months leading up to the testimony, her working
environment caused her to leave work crying several times,
though she couldn’t leave her job because she
needed the paycheck. In one incident, Losco said that
Remick trapped her in a room for at least 30 minutes,
while she was in the midst of attending 20 patients. When
Losco tried to leave, she said that Remick grabbed her
wrist and told her she wasn’t going anywhere.
“If I have
to work with you, I will send you home early because I
won’t work with a faggot, and you have breasts
and a penis.” Remick told Losco according to
the EEOC filing.
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Camunas is The Advocate's editorial intern and a
junior at University of Southern California