Texas state agency orders workers to dress based on ‘biological gender’

Texas Agriculture Department dress code now based on ‘biological gender’ - The Washington Post

Much of the Texas Department of Agriculture’s new dress code probably won’t surprise most office workers. Employees are barred from wearing ripped jeans, crop tops or flip flops. Pants shouldn’t sag to the knees. Business attire, like a suit or pantsuit, is expected for those testifying before the state legislature.

Earlier this month, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller issued a two-page “dress code and grooming policy,” which was leaked and first published on Monday by the Texas Observer. The ACLU has since called the policy “clearly unlawful,” tarring it as the most recent attempt by Texas state lawmakers to target transgender people as they go to school, play sports, receive medical care and simply live.

“This dress code policy is … the commissioner trying to move us backwards in time decades to a time when the government and private employers could try to dictate and police how people express their gender,” said Brian Klosterboer, a lawyer with the ACLU of Texas.

Department officials and the office of Gov. Greg Abbott (R) did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post. But on Wednesday morning, Miller defended the new dress code on Spectrum News 1. Describing himself as “a low-regulation guy” who didn’t want to mandate a dress code, Miller said he nevertheless needed to whip employees back into shape as they returned to the office after years of wearing “pajamas on their couch” while working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

He also addressed the requirement that employees dress “in a manner consistent with their biological gender.”

“We don’t want a man come dressed in drag, or vice versa,” he said. “It’s very disruptive. It’s not professional.”

The two-page policy, dated April 13, dictates that employees who interact with the public and other government officials outside the department should dress in business attire. The dress code gives examples broken down by gender. For men, that means long-sleeved shirts, ties and sport coats worn with trousers and dress shoes or boots. For women, it includes tailored pantsuits, “businesslike” dresses and coordinated “dressy separates” worn with or without a blazer and conservative closed-toe shoes or boots.

“You are a professional,” the policy states more than once, “look like one.”

Employees in violation can be disciplined or even fired, the policy adds.

Most of the new policy “seems okay,” Klosterboer said, insofar as employers, whether they’re government agencies or private companies, have the right to require employees meet a baseline of professional dress. But they can’t make their employees conform to gender stereotypes, something several decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and federal appeals courts have made clear in recent years, he added.

“You can ask people to dress professionally without discriminating based on gender or race or any other protected characteristic,” he said. “But this policy here is clearly unlawful.”

The new policy is “especially hostile” to transgender employees, Klosterboer said, but it also sends a “deeply harmful message” to all LGBTQ workers at the department. And it could be weaponized by a bad actor who decides to target a subordinate they don’t like or find professionally threatening by claiming their outfit isn’t masculine or feminine enough, he added.

“It’s so vague,” Klosterboer said.

Texas state lawmakers have introduced 52 anti-LGBTQ bills during this year’s legislative session, according to ACLU data. As of Friday, 49 of those were anti-transgender — the most in the country, according to The Post’s analysis of that data. So far, none has been enacted.

On top of being discriminatory and harmful, the Texas Department of Agriculture’s new dress code policy is also a waste of time, Klosterboer said.

“It’s really unfortunate seeing a government agency that should be focused on doing its job and serving the people of Texas adopt a policy that seems so inflammatory and discriminatory towards its own employees,” he said.