Danielle Cornwell, a transgender woman who claims she was laid off because of her sex change, said Tuesday that she’s looking forward to returning to work next month at a Greenwood Village industrial testing company.
Cornwell recently settled her claims of discrimination against Intermountain Testing Co. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The firm did not admit wrongdoing. However, Cornwell, 54, of Arvada said the company “has already tried to make it a friendlier environment” by presenting “a gender training session” last week to about a dozen company supervisors and workers.
“The guys shook my hand afterwards and told me they were looking forward to having me back,” said Cornwell, who hopes to have gender reconstruction surgery in the next year. “I don’t know that everything is going to be 100 percent perfect when I return, but I did have a good feeling when I left that meeting.”
Cornwell, with help from lawyers at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of Colorado, waged a legal battle against Intermountain Testing that resulted in an unprecedented state ruling from the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
The agency, charged with ensuring fair employment practices, said in September that Cornwell may have been discriminated against illegally on the basis of her gender. The ruling laid the groundwork that allowed Cornwell to pursue further legal action against the company.
The potential for ongoing litigation likely encouraged the company to settle the case, said John Hummel, one of Cornwell’s lawyers.
“We just wanted this situation to be remedied, and it has been,” he said. “We don’t have anything bad to say about Intermountain Testing. They did the right thing, and we’re happy for that.”
Officials for Intermountain Testing and the company’s lawyer did not return calls for comment.
Cornwell spent most of her life as a man named David. In June 2005, she informed her employer that she planned to change her gender, a process that involved wearing women’s clothes and changing her name.
A month later, she lost her job. Cornwell had worked more than 15 years for Intermountain Testing, which provides services to the construction and manufacturing industries.
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-954-1503 or ctatum@denverpost.com.
