Legalizing Discrimination Against Transgender Employees

Today, the Justice Department reversed course, stating that the federal law that bans sex discrimination (called Title VII) does not extend to transgender employees.

Courts will have the final say on this—and the last three federal appeals courts to look at the issue said that the law’s criterion— no discrimination “because of sex”— includes discrimination based on transgender status.

So, how exactly does a legal memo say it’s okay to discriminate? 
Here’s how. 
Attorney General Sessions’ staff now says Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only prohibits discrimination on the basis of a worker’s biological sex and not their gender identity.

By that logic, it’s not far-fetched to think that the Justice Department will limit Title VII’s protection against race discrimination to people who are 100% African-American or similar—in other words, not to people who are from a mixed racial background. The logic here is that a categorical criterion is limited to one descriptor—for sex, one’s birth gender; and for race, only a "pure" race.