Monday, September 22, 2008

Transgender Discrimination Victory over Library of Congress

Another post here, only a little belated this time.

A few days ago, a sex discrimination lawsuit in D.C. ruled in favor of the transgender individual, Diane Schroer, a retired a U.S. Army General as David, and recently was offered a job at the Library of Congress. When notifying the employer of her intent to transition, the new job was rescinded, for no practical reason other than gender discrimination.

This is an important victory against discrimination, not just on gender. It turns out that our U.S. Federal Government is still discriminatory to the LGBT community, unlike state governments which are gradually introducing more anti-discrimination laws, and corporations who are leading the country and worldwide working environments with anti-discriminatory policies and increasing instances of benefits support for the LGBT community.

Many, if not all, policies regarding the U.S. Federal Government, do not state or enforce any anti-discrimination policies for LGBT people. When LGBT people receive benefits from forward thinking corporate benefits plans, they are still taxed on the financial support as income. This is very different than benefits granted to traditional spouses. And this happens IF benefits are granted in the first place and not withheld due to exclusions to domestic partners or transgendered individuals, which still happens quite frequently.

I will be following this trend further as well.

2008 Out and Equal Workplace Summit

Still new to blogging here, so I haven't gotten into the habit of blogging immediately yet....

A couple weeks ago I attended the 2008 Out and Equal Workplace Summit in Austin, TX, and taught my workshop on Gender Virtualization to the conference audience of the LGBT community and Fortune 500 HR and Diversity professionals. The corporate professionals attend to study the latest LGBT issues and try to improve corporate policies and benefits to make a safer and more productive working environment for all of us.

Transgender was a popular topic at the Summit this year. My Gender Virtualization topic also seemed to resonate with the Transgender community quite well, as there does seem to be a very large population of MtF transgender people who are unable or not ready to undergo a complete transition to the opposite gender. Those remaining "in the middle" may still consider themselves transgender and may need some guidance and support to better understand themselves and to stay productive in their personal and professional lives.

I also found that once these individual discover themselves, as with most other LGBT members, a large burden is removed, the person is much happier, and we get a much more pleasant and productive person to be with in our personal and professional circles.