Hawaii Law Amended to Prohibit Gender Identity Discrimination
August 11th 2011
Hawaii became the 13th U.S. state to ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity after Governor Neil Abercrombie signed a new employment discrimination bill into law on May 10th 2011.
House Bill 546 prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression in employment and as a matter of public policy. While the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission had previously interpreted HRS Chapter 378 as protecting against discrimination in employment due to gender identity or expression, in the absence of explicit language in the statute courts were unwilling to view the statute in the same manner.
After Governor Abercrombie signed the bill, Hawaii State law, HRS Chapter 378, now prohibits employment discrimination and harassment based on “race, sex, including gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, color, ancestry, disability, marital status, or arrest and court record.”
Under the new law “gender identity or expression,” now “includes a person’s actual or perceived gender, as well as a person’s gender identity, gender-related self-image, gender-related appearance, or gender-related expression, regardless of whether that gender identity, gender-related self-image, gender-related appearance, or gender-related expression is different from that traditionally associated with the person’s sex at birth.”
Thus, Hawaii law now prohibits discrimination or harassment in employment based on sexual orientation, defined as having a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality; having a history of any one or more of these preferences; or being identified with any one or more of these preference, in addition to gender identity or expression, e.g., transsexuals, transgendered individuals or transvestites.
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