A town hall meeting to discuss the impact of the recent federal appeals court ruling upholding a lower court's ruling that transgender woman Vandy Beth Glenn was discriminated against by the state will be held Jan. 10 at the Phillip Rush Center.

Hosted by Georgia Equality, the state's largest LGBT advocacy organization, the town hall forum will feature Lambda Legal attorneys who worked on the Glenn case. Glenn sued the state after she was fired from her job as a legislative editor when she told her superiors she was transitioning from male to female.

The town hall forum will also be a time to discuss House Bill 630, introduced last year by state Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale Estates). The bill, titled the Georgia Fair Employment Practices Bill, calls for employment non-discrimination for state employees and includes sexual orientation and gender identity. It would cover Georgia’s 174,000 state employees. Currently 21 states bar job discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation, while 12 also ban job bias against state employees based on gender identity, according to Georgia Equality.

"The town hall will provide an opportunity for the community to ask questions of the attorney from Lambda Legal who successfully represented Vandy Beth Glenn in her lawsuit against the state on what the implications of this lawsuit are for all transgender individuals with the regards to employment protections. It will also be a time for representatives of Georgia Equality to discuss why now is the time to put this important legal precedent into state law with the passage of House Bill 630," states a press release from Georgia Equality.

Georgia Equality Town Hall forum
6-8 p.m.
Phillip Rush Center
1530 DeKalb Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30307