I recently saw that a discrimination lawsuit had been filed involving a defense that sex was a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) for restaurant servers (Rafael Ortiz v. DMD Florida Restaurant Group, 2016).  I immediately thought of the Hooters cases that are part of the I-O lore and thought that this might be a good time to review these restaurant BFOQ cases. This discussion is limited to restaurant cases for two reasons: (a) They are the most interesting, and (b) a review of the other cases (e.g., sex as a BFOQ for prison guards¹ or home health attendants) would far exceed the TIP space limitations and probably the readers’ attention span as well.²  

Before I get into the case review, however, I want to review the definition of a BFOQ and provide additional context around the BFOQ defense.

Resulting from the recent U.S. election results, Donald Trump is to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States in January 2017.  Although candidate Trump expressed some clear positions for his term, the public is aware of the general contours but not in-depth specifics on other positions and policy-related issues.  Existing congressional Republican priorities and policies may, but are not certain to, be adopted by the Trump White House.

Greetings readers! Like most people in this country (and many other countries), I have been absorbed, fascinated and at times horrified with the recent US presidential election. OK, OK, maybe you’re sick of reading about it—sorry, but I can’t help it. It’s so interesting! I promise to try not to take sides (I’m a Canadian so my political views are easy to guess and mostly irrelevant!). What I’d like to talk about are the MANY lessons and examples this election has provided for teachers of industrial-organizational psychology. I hardly know where to start.

The election is finally over and Donald J. Trump has been declared president-elect of the United States.  During the campaign, over half of all Americans surveyed reported that the 2016 US presidential election has been a significant source of stress in their lives (American Psychological Association, 2016). Election stress was a bipartisan issue equally felt by Democrats and Republicans, yet across racial, ethnic, sociodemographic, age, and ability groups, stress was experienced quite differently.  Since the results of election night, stress may be over for some, but for many others, especially in the LGBT community, the stress is still very much present.  Since the days of the election, calls to suicide hotlines like the Trevor Project have doubled and Trans Lifeline calls increased tenfold (Patterson, 2016; Seipel, 2016).  Many of the concerns that have been expressed are about fears regarding the gains in LGBT rights being lost under the new president (Patterson, 2016).  These include concerns about access to trans-related healthcare, the nullification of marriage equality, and the promotion of reparative therapy, a practice that is heavily discredited by the APA. The purpose of this piece is to inform our field on what these concerns are as they relate to working LGBT employees and the training of I-O psychologists, related policy concerns, and what can be done as practitioners and academics to protect employees and students.

America awoke on November 9, 2016 to the election of Donald J. Trump as its next president. So for many commentators, your humble author included, what might have been a ho-hum summary of the past year was transformed into the opportunity, if not the obligation, to prognosticate on the coming year. This, of course, was after the election had thrown prognostications into disrepute.