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Oct. 8 as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether civil rights law prohibits job discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. The high court -- reckoning * No more lip service: Time to act on diversity * LGBTQ workforce makes gains, but transgender discrimination remains pervasive * How to keep your company's D&I efforts from fizzling out -- to perform an exorcism on her. "I said, 'Well, Janice,' and I never forget a name ... 'This isn't a choice,'" Carter, a transgender woman, recalled in an interview with Crain's. "I explained everything to her based on medical science." The Black native Detroiter, 54, has faced discrimination on the job -- civil rights law protects them from discrimination, based on sex. One case was the firing of late Michigan resident Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman. But transgender individuals, especially those who are Black and other people of color, still get mistreated in the workplace, from misuse of pronouns to firing and violence. -- LGBTQ is an acronym for an array of sexual orientations and gender identities including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Often media or employers get terminology for these groups — and specifically transgender people — wrong out of lack of information or understanding. While preferences on language differ and evolve (and no accounting can be called exhaustive or correct for everyone), here are -- reporting: Transgender is a term for someone with a gender identity different from the sex assigned to them at birth. It's different from sexual orientation, which describes a person's attraction to others. -- example). Cisgender is a term for people who are not transgender. Put another way, their identity doesn't differ from the gender typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Widely accepted rules for terminology dictate that people call a transgender person by their chosen name, even if not legally changed. Referring to a no-longer-used name is often called "deadnaming." Use their preferred pronouns, and when you don't know, ask (this is why -- or email signature). Using an incorrect pronoun is often called "misgendering" and can increase stigmatization. Violence and discrimination disproportionately impact transgender Black women and transgender women of color. More than a quarter of Michiganders who identify as transgender have been fired, denied a promotion or not been hired due to their status. That's according to the U.S. Transgender Survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality in 2015 — the most recent year available. Carter, an activist who works with nonprofit LGBT Detroit, said as an independent contractor she's been somewhat insulated from employer -- he-she." "But I just kept myself in a very dignified space and people eventually come to terms with it," she said. "I'm open about being a trans woman, and I'm proud of it ... I'm just too fabulous for all that mess." Discrimination against transgender workers is commonplace and often blatant, said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan's LGBT Project. He said there's less awareness about what it means to be transgender than there is for gay or lesbian identities. "There is a high tolerance and a high mentality for disrespect," said Jeynce Poindexter, transgender advocate at Equality Michigan and founding board member of the Trans Sistas of Color Project. "For misgendering, for outing ... A situation where someone may (not be visibly transgender) and going to work and someone goes and tells the superior, and they're fired. We have to have a level of respect so that we even can connect. If you don't honor me as a person, you're not -- resources department, she said. "A lot of Black trans women, our first level of violence and harsh disrespect, it comes from right within our household," Poindexter said. "So then you tell a person to get out and expect them to make it -- Jeynce Poindexter "A lot of Black trans women, our first level of violence and harsh disrespect, it comes from right within our household," Poindexter said. "So then you tell a person to get out and expect them to make it -- Discrimination reporting Transphobia, a dearth of legal protections and lack of trust in the law has meant low public reporting of harassment or discrimination in the workplace for transgender individuals. "A thing to keep in mind is it's certainly an undercount, because a lot -- Supreme Court ruling The most prominent recent local case of transgender workplace discrimination is that of Aimee Stephens. She died May 12, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in her sex discrimination lawsuit for being fired by a Garden City funeral home after coming out as a transgender woman. Allison Shelley Photography Actress Laverne Cox (left) meets Aimee Stephens (center), who sued her Garden City employer over firing due to transgender status, and her wife Donna outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Oct. 8 as the high court hears her case. -- because she couldn't find work in the funeral home business." But what does the Supreme Court's decision mean for transgender and other LGBTQ people in Michigan? -- Uphill battle Transgender people still face an uphill battle in employment. Nineteen percent of transgender Michigan residents were unemployed as of 2015, the latest U.S. Transgender Survey. It had 27,715 respondents, 894 of which were in Michigan. The state's overall unemployment rate for that year was 5.4 percent. -- information shared without consent. Michigan has around 32,900 residents who identify as transgender, or 0.43 percent of the population, according to a 2016 Williams Institute study. It ranks 40th in the nation for transgender-identifying population. -- People respond to deliberate investment in safe, accepting spaces, she added. She pointed to when Starbucks expanded health benefits for transgender employees. "I know people who literally went to work at Starbucks for that