New U.S. civil rights chief pulled back into transgender staffer fight in Montgomery

Just a week after Tom Perez was formally installed as chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights division, the former Maryland labor secretary and Montgomery Council member was given a little welcoming gift Friday by council member Duchy Trachtenberg: a letter seeking to bring him into a messy Montgomery dispute regarding ethics proceedings against a transgender council staffer.

Dana Beyer, a doctor and top Trachtenberg aide, says claims she threatened or tried to intimidate opponents of a 2007 transgender rights law are baseless. Beyer helped craft the transgender law and is the first person to use it. Last week Beyer filed a discrimination complaint against Montgomery's ethics commission, which is moving forward with a rare hearing on the accusations against her. She said Trachtenberg's letter asks for Perez's "guidance" on the matter. Trachenberg's office declined to release the letter, but said they'll release his response when one comes.

Trachtenberg on Friday did release a letter she sent Montgomery county attorney Leon Rodriguez reiterating her objection to a search of Beyer's e-mail by a county technology official working on behalf of investigators in the county attorney's office and the ethics commission.....

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