This morning my Twitter stream was full of rejoicing from the far side of the Atlantic thanks to a major breakthrough in trans rights. Here’s what happened.

The story began when Mia Macy applied for a job with a government agency in San Francisco. She was extremely well qualified for it, and was given the post, but she had applied in her male name and, when she explained that she would be transitioning prior to taking the job, the offer was withdrawn and someone else appointed. Mia and her partner tell their story here.

The good people at the Transgender Law Center took up they case, and they referred it to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requiesting the right to sue for sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yesterday they were granted that right.

This is a landmark decision in two ways. As the NTCE explains, this will be of huge help to people in states where the local state government has refused to pass protection laws for trans people. There is now a federal decision that applies to such cases. In addition the EEOC has recognized that discrimination on the grounds of gender is still discrimination, regardless of how well or poorly the person in question conforms to the gender binary, which is a major philosophical victory.

I had the pleasure of meeting Masen Davis and his colleagues at TLC a few years ago, and interviewed them for Press for Change. I was very impressed by them then, and am even more so now. Well done folks, that’s a huge breakthrough you have achieved.

I should add, by the way, that Mia’s story is far from over. Yesterday’s ruling only gives her the right to bring a case. Given the EEOC’s ruling, it is highly unlikely that she would lose, but even then there’s the question of whether she then wants to take up a job with an employer that despises her. While she has helped make life better for thousands of other trans Americans, there’s no guarantee of a happy ending for her. Hopefully someone will find her skills attractive.