mr. broddis, thank you very much. i'm told by my staff that you are indeed the first transgender individual to testify before this senate. i'm proud of this committee. i'm proud of this committee that would invite you here, and this chairman and my staff, i thank you for being here. and i want to commend you for your courage in being here, and for being who you are. because you're going to give courage to a lot of other people. so i commend you for that. thank you very much for being here. >> thank you, sir. >>> now we'll turn to mr. baggenstos, and welcome and please proceed. >> thank you, chairman harken and members of the committee. i appreciate the invitation to testify today in support of this important bill. my testimony today is based on my experience writing about, teaching about, litigating civil rights employment discrimination cases for most of the past two tech kincaid's, including two assistants in the department of justice, most recently from 2009 to 2011, where i did serve as the principle deputy assist