By Michael Pepperman, Ivo Becica and Alexander Batoff ( March 26, 2018, 11:24 AM EDT) -- On March 7, 2018, the Sixth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a gender identity discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a Michigan funeral home. The EEOC brought the case, EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes,[1] on behalf of Aimee Stephens, a funeral director/embalmer who was assigned male at birth and presented as a man at the time of her hire by the funeral home. The EEOC claimed that the funeral home's owner terminated Stephens' employment for discriminatory reasons after she disclosed her intention to transition from male to female and dress as a woman at work, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The funeral home's majority owner, a devout Christian, testified that he fired Stephens because she intended to dress as a woman, and because he felt that continuing to employ Stephens would violate his religious beliefs. This testimony set the stage for the Sixth Circuit to address the conflict between anti-discrimination laws and religious freedom....