Getting Your Name and Pronouns Right Is Not Optional

Someone at work keeps using the wrong name or the wrong pronouns for you, even after you’ve corrected them more than once.

Maybe it gets waved off as an honest mistake.  Maybe you’ve started to wonder if it’s worth mentioning again.  It happens often enough, to enough people, that California law treats it as more than an etiquette problem.

Under Gov. Code § 12940 (the Fair Employment and Housing Act, FEHA), gender identity and gender expression are protected characteristics, and California’s implementing regulations at 2 CCR § 11034 specifically address the intentional and repeated use of the wrong name or pronouns after an employee has made their identity clear.  Federal guidance on this topic has shifted and narrowed in recent years, but that shift does not reach California’s own regulations, which remain fully in force regardless of what federal agencies decide to enforce.

What matters for a potential claim is the pattern: was the correction communicated clearly, did the mistreatment continue after that, and was it tied to your gender identity rather than an isolated slip.  A single accidental mistake is different from a sustained refusal to get it right.

If this is happening to you and it hasn’t stopped after you raised it, that pattern is worth talking through with someone who can tell you whether it rises to a legal issue; contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation.  The facts determine whether you have a claim — and how much of a conversation that takes.

This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces.  It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts — no lawyer can guarantee a result.  Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes.  AI may have been used to create this post.  All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.