Clinic agrees to pay $150k in lawsuit

LAKELAND (AP) — A central Florida eye clinic has agreed to pay $150,000 to resolve a discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of a transgender employee who was terminated.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit which alleges the Lakeland Eye Clinic fired the employee after she started dressing as a woman and told her bosses she was transitioning from male to female. The commission says the termination violates the Civil Rights Act.

The settlement was approved by the U.S. District Court in Tampa on Thursday. The eye clinic also agreed to implement a new gender discrimination policy and to provide training to its management and employees regarding transgender/gender stereotype discrimination.

The commission says this is one of the first two lawsuits it’s ever filed alleging sex discrimination against a transgender individual.