Appeals Judges Order Lower Court To Reconsider Transsexual Salem, Ohio Firefighter's Case

CINCINNATI (AP) -- A federal appeals court ordered a court Tuesday to reconsider a lawsuit by a transsexual firefighter who said the city of Salem violated her rights by suspending her after she disclosed she was changing her gender to become a woman.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal judge in Youngstown erred last year by dismissing the claims of the fire lieutenant, known as Jimmie L. Smith. The appeals judges said Smith had presented evidence that supported her claims of gender discrimination and civil rights violations.

The appeals court on Tuesday reinstated the lawsuit and sent it back to U.S. District Judge Peter Economus.

Smith's lawyer, Randi Barnabee, said she was pleased with the ruling. She said the case isn't likely to go to trial before next year.

Smith said city officials formed a plan to fire her after she told a supervisor she had been diagnosed with gender identity disorder and planned to make a complete physical transformation from male to female. Smith said she spoke with a supervisor because co-workers were questioning her about her increasingly feminine appearance and commenting that her mannerisms were not ``masculine enough,'' the three appeals judges said in their ruling.

Aretta Bernard, a lawyer representing Salem and city officials, did not return a telephone call Tuesday.

Smith said she obtained approval from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to sue the city and was immediately given a one-day suspension for allegedly violating a municipal ordinance that had not yet been enacted. Smith said the ordinance would have required firefighters to be sent on all emergency calls on which an ambulance was dispatched and that she had failed to send a firefighter on such a call.

Smith said that prior to the suspension, she had served seven years in the northeast Ohio city's fire department without any negative incidents. She is still with the department.