2009-07-01 17:59:04 -

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is not fighting a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.
The Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the decision pass Tuesday, a day after President Barack Obama hosted gay supporters at the White House and promised to be their «champion.» Some activists have complained he has not led on their causes, including ending the ban on gays in the military.
Diane Schroer, a retired Army Special Forces commander had been offered a job at the Library of Congress when he was a man, David Schroer. The job was rescinded the day after Schroer told a library official he was going to have an operation to become a woman.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Schroer's behalf in 2005, and two months ago a federal judge awarded her $491,190 in back pay and damages because of sex discrimination.
The Library of Congress and President George W. Bush's Justice Department had argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.
Schroer said she saw the administration's decision not to appeal as a recognition that transgender discrimination must end and «gives me renewed hope and restores some of my shaken faith in what our country stands for.
Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler put the decision not to appeal the ruling in legal, not political, terms.

«The District Court's detailed factual findings, as well as its alternate legal holdings, make this case a poor vehicle to contest the underlying issues,» she said.