Trans university employee wins settlement after discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit

An employee of Vanderbilt University reached a settlement in a discrimination lawsuit last week after co-workers allegedly deadnamed her, misgendered her and denied her access to on-site restroom facilities.

Olivia Hill worked at the on-campus power plant providing electricity and heat to the Nashville, Tennessee, university for more than two decades before she announced her intent to transition in 2018. Despite her long tenure and spotless record, she says colleagues and supervisors did not take the announcement well. She says she was subjected to transphobic and sexist harassment on a daily basis and bypassed for a job that she says she was highly qualified for, given her years of experience. 

The hardest part of the ordeal, Hill says, is that she “really loved working at Vanderbilt.” 

“I held every position at the plant,” she tells Xtra. “I worked my way up, and I thought I was succeeding because I went to work an hour early and stayed three, four or five hours late. Truth of the matter is, it was because I was presented as male. As soon as I no longer did, I no longer had any value at Vanderbilt, and they pushed me aside.”

Hill filed suit in September 2021 and finalized the settlement last week. While the terms of the settlement are confidential, Hill’s lawyer, John Nefflen, told Xtra that they are “very pleased with how the case resolved.”

Hill’s battle has been ongoing since 2018, when she first notified the university of her intent to transition. After she told her colleagues, the lawsuit claims Hill’s supervisor used slurs and derogatory language, including “trans freak” and “weirdo,” to discuss her transition with co-workers, and referred to her as “it.” According to the suit, she was regularly deadnamed and misgendered on the job, and co-workers frequently asked intrusive questions about her body. 

While she filed a report with the university’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office in December 2019, her claims were dismissed and no action was taken. She also later filed a report with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in July 2021. 

Hill tells Xtra the harassment did not end when she physically transitioned—in fact, she claims, the sexist abuse she endured was just as severe. Supervisors and co-workers would allegedly exclude her from meetings and withhold information from her that was vital to her job. “After I had all my surgeries and came back as me, it was more just sexism,” she says. Per the suit, colleagues would belittle her and call her “honey,” telling her to “go sit in the office” and that “this is men’s work,” among other misogynistic remarks.

In the suit, Hill says co-workers and contractors would make sexually explicit comments about her body and look down her shirt. When Hill spoke out about the harassment, she recalls that supervisors told her to “leave her emotions at home and just do her job.”

What’s more, the plant had no bathroom or locker room for women, despite having two of each for male employees. When Hill attempted to secure the plant’s only single-stall facility as a women’s restroom, she was met with pushback, according to the suit. While she was given approval to make the change initially, she was reprimanded by one of her supervisors after she changed the sign and locks on the door, and ultimately had to use a bathroom in a different building. 

Hill was placed on administrative paid leave in December 2019, which the lawsuit alleges was a “punishment,” as she ended up losing significant overtime pay. She never returned, announcing her retirement this past December.

Due to the confidential nature of the settlement, Vanderbilt has not commented on the specifics of Hill’s allegations. In a statement released to the Vanderbilt Hustler, the school’s student newspaper, the university pledged to “continue to take steps to help our employees feel respected, included and safe in their work environments, including providing resources for employees who identify as transgender, genderqueer or non-binary, as well as the managers who support them.” 

Hill hopes that the settlement will make things easier for future trans employees who may experience discrimination. “I honestly feel in my heart that the very next trans person that comes out and says, ‘Hey, I’m transgender,’ Vanderbilt is going to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this one right. We can’t have another Olivia Hill,’” she says. 

Having moved on from Vanderbilt, Hill hopes to continue making change for trans people elsewhere. Tennessee, where Hill lives, saw a barrage of anti-trans bills last year: of 12 proposed bills, five were passed and signed into law. These included a ban on trans youth in sports, restrictions for minors seeking gender-affirming health care and the first bathroom bill to be enacted since North Carolina’s notorious HB 2 in 2016. 

Several discriminatory proposals are still working their way through the Tennessee legislature, and at least six other states are already pushing their own anti-trans legislation in 2022. Hill believes greater education is necessary to stop this alarming trend. 

“I’m born and raised here, and my state hates me,” she says. “So many people don’t understand what we have to go through. I want to try to educate as many people as I can.”