After $220,000 Court Win Against Hobby Lobby, a Transgender Manager Finally Can Use the Women’s Restroom (Feat. Meggan Sommerville & Jacob Meister)

A little more than a week after her landmark $220,000 victory against Hobby Lobby, a transgender manager and her lawyer have confirmed that the conservative Christian-owned crafts company now allows her to use the women's restroom. Hobby Lobby denied frame department manager Meggan Sommerville that right for more than a decade, a policy that an Illinois appellate court recently found caused her "emotional devastation" deserving of the toughest penalty the state's Human Rights Commission has ever awarded. "Fortunately, about a week and a half ago, they told Meggan that, for the first time, they will abide by the court's decision, and she can use the women's room at work," her attorney Jacob Meister reveals on the show. Fresh from her victory from a unanimous three-judge panel, Sommerville opens up about the turmoil Hobby Lobby's former policy caused her. "I still will have dreams, nightmares of being in environments where I'm not accepted, where I am just in this constant battle to prove to the world around me who I am," Sommerville said. "It's tough. I don't wish this on anybody. Hopefully one day I will be able to get past it, but it's been emotionally devastating." Her lawyer Meister unpacks the significance of his client’s court victory for other transgender people in the workplace and explains why lawyers say in cases involving gender: "It always comes down to bathrooms." Toward the end of the episode, Sommerville shares an anecdote about the support she received from one of her Hobby Lobby customers when she first transitioned. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.