While some advocates claim that a ban on cross-dressing amounts to the violation of transgender people’s rights, a family organization has presented the opposite argument while commenting on a recent American Eagle Outfitters case.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo successfully challenged the clothing retail chain to change its policies to be more transgender-friendly. According to The New York Daily News, the company will abandon the rule about employee "personal appearance" that banned men from wearing women’s clothing and vice versa.
"If more places would follow behind American Eagle’s experience, a lot of us would be able to work more," said Joi-elle White, a transgender member of Make the Road New York, adding that "there would be less of us on the street or on the internet risking our [lives] just to survive."
However, Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins has expressed his disappointment with the outcome, and linked the case to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), currently under consideration in Congress.
"Every American who believes in the right of employers to set dress and grooming standards for their employees should be alarmed by how this attorney general has used bullying tactics and litigation to impose cross-dressing policies on American Eagle Outfitters," Perkins warned. 