Trans Navy veteran, 25-year employee of Vanderbilt Univerity, settles discrimination lawsuit
A transgender veteran who sued her employer, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., for discrimination last year has settled her lawsuit, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Olivia Ruth Hill, a 25-year-employee of the university filed the lawsuit on Sept. 30, 2021, over the “extensive, continuous, and egregious pattern of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against her” because of her gender identity.
Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but Hill celebrated the news in a statement shared with the Daily News.
“It is my hope that this resolution assures that no transgender person at Vanderbilt will ever have to go through the living hell that I endured,” she said.
“I loved Vanderbilt and devoted myself to the University for 25 years. I am pleased that we were able to resolve this matter,” she added.
Hill, a disabled combat veteran of the U.S. Navy., noted in the complaint the “stunning hypocrisy” shown by the university for violating its own “highly publicized” policies alleging support for LGBTQ employees and students.
In January 2018, after she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the Davidson County, Tenn.-resident met with a counselor at the Vanderbilt Employee Assistance Program to develop a plan to begin living full-time as a woman.
Gender dysphoria is defined as a feeling of discomfort or distress resulting from an incongruence between a person’s sex assigned at birth and that person’s gender identity.
According to the 28-page lawsuit, she notified school officials of her transition about six months after that, when all managers, supervisors, as well as all employees who reported to Hill, were informed about it.
In August, however, she “learned that her direct supervisor, Tim Cook, had been discussing her transition with engineers and contractors with whom she works, and was using terrible slurs to describe her, such as ‘it,’ ‘trans freak,’ and ‘weirdo,’ among other names.”
Hill claims that she took the matter to Cook’s supervisor, but nothing was done about it.
After she returned to work in May 2019, following the medically necessary gender-affirmation procedures she required, she continued to be harassed by both her superiors and subordinates.
In April 2021, after her immediate supervisor announced his retirement, she applied for the job — and had to interview with some of the individuals who harassed her.
But Hill — who had never been disciplined in her career, and even received an award for “going far beyond her job expectations while carrying out the spirit and mission of Vanderbilt in all they do” — was told she would not get the job, without any explanations.
“This case exposed the stunning hypocrisy of Vanderbilt in claiming to have such forward-thinking policies to protect LGBTQ staff and then treating the first person who actually transitioned to such horrible, unnecessary treatment,” said her attorney, Abby Rubenfeld, of the Nashville-based law firm Rubenfeld Law Office PC.
“Vanderbilt cannot ‘talk the talk’ but not ‘walk the walk,’” Rubenfeld added. “We believe that justice has been served and that Vanderbilt got the message loud and clear.”
