ATLANTA — In a brief filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia and co-counsel Buckley Beal LLP argued that their client, Alisha Coleman, was subjected to unlawful workplace discrimination when she was fired for experiencing a heavy period, a symptom of premenopause. 
 
 “Employers have no business policing women’s bodies or their menstrual cycles,” said Andrea Young, ACLU of Georgia executive director. “Firing a woman for getting her period at work is offensive and an insult to every woman in the workplace. A heavy period is something nearly all women will experience, especially as they approach menopause, and Alisha was shamed, demeaned and fired for it. That’s wrong and illegal under federal law. We’re fighting back.” 
 
 “Federal law is supposed to protect women from being punished, harassed or fired because of their sex, and being fired for unexpectedly getting your period at work is the very essence of sex discrimination,” said Galen Sherwin, Senior Staff Attorney at the Women’s Rights Project of the ACLU. “This kind of blatant discrimination against women in the workplace is why the ACLU Women’s Rights Project was founded 45 years ago, and why the fight for gender equality must continue.” 
 
 Coleman was employed as a 911 call taker for the Bobby Dodd Institute, a job training and employment agency in Fort Benning, Georgia where she had worked for nearly a decade, when she was fired in 2016 for experiencing two incidents of sudden onset, heavy menstrual flow, a symptom of premenopause. 
 
 “I loved my job at the 9/11 call center because I got to help people,” said Coleman. “Every woman dreads getting period symptoms when they’re not expecting them, but I never thought I could be fired for it. Getting fired for an accidental period leak was humiliating. I don’t want any woman to have to go through what I did, so I’m fighting back.” 
 
 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of sex, including “pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.” The brief argues that the district court, which dismissed the case in February, erred in ruling that premenopause and the associated sudden-onset heavy menstruation are not protected under Title VII. 
 
 The brief is online here: https://www.acluga.org/sites/default/files/appeal_brief.pdf 
 
 This release is at: https://www.acluga.org/en/press-releases/aclu-appeals-case-georgia-woman-fired-getting-her-period-work 
 
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– After working at a 911 call center for nearly 10 years, Alisha Coleman was fired. She says it's because of her period, and the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing gender discrimination is at play. In the brief, Coleman alleges that the Bobby Dodd Institute in Fort Benning, Georgia, gave her a disciplinary write up after the "sudden onset of her menstrual period" caused her to leak fluid onto her chair in August 2015. It happened again the following April, with menstrual fluid spotting the carpet as she made her way to the bathroom. She says she cleaned the spot with bleach, but was fired four days later for failing to "practice high standards of personal hygiene and maintain a clean, neat appearance while on duty." The ACLU calls Coleman's firing "wrong and illegal under federal law," citing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans workplace discrimination based on sex. The crux of the case is that sudden heavy menstrual flow is a symptom of pre-menopause. The New York Daily News reports that Coleman's case was first dismissed by a district court that found the law does not protect the condition of pre-menopause, but the ACLU argues that it fits under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination due to "pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions." USA Today reports that Bobby Dodd has issued a statement saying "there is more to this story than is being portrayed by those who are suing us." (One company actually gives women time off for their periods.)