One year ago today, under President Obama's leadership, the Social Security Administration (SSA) put an end to the gender verification process that disproportionately impacted transgender workers across the country. Under the policy, the SSA would issue “gender no-match” letters to employers when the gender marker of an employee’s W-2 form did not match SSA records. The verification process was initially designed to ensure that employees had a valid social security number for employment; however, the policy of verifying gender markers cost many transgender workers their jobs and ultimately proved unnecessary as alternative identity verification processes were developed.

Under the policy, transgender employees whose employers received “gender no-match” letters were often subject to invasive questions regarding medical information and gender identity, and made vulnerable to discrimination and termination. Lacking clear federal employment protection from discrimination based on gender identity, many transgender employees who were outed by the SSA were forced to confront their employers and co-workers in order to keep their jobs. The National Center for Transgender Equality reported that 711,488 no-match letters were issued in 2010 alone.

One year after the policy’s repeal, transgender workers can do their jobs without fear of being outed by gender no-match letters, and employers are able to retain hard-working transgender employees. Learn more about how President Obama’s administration has fought for LGBT Americans since he took office, and show your support by committing to vote.

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