The New Frontier of Transgender Workplace Policy
Historic New Workplace Advances support Transgender Employees

I'm passionate about transgender workplace issues.  That passion was the fuel that got me started with transgender advocacy in general, and with the Human Rights Campaign in particular.  I take a great deal of pride in knowing that the significant advances we're making there are affecting real lives each and every day.  It's the place where the rubber hits the road for so many of us - where we need some level of confidence that we won't lose our job simply for announcing that we're transgender.  Living costs money, and far too many of us find ourselves unemployed or under-employed at a time we can least afford it.  At the same time, in terms of educating people about who and what we really are each of us unknowingly becomes the face of the entire transgender community for the people we meet.  It's the place where misconceptions are either corrected, or established as fact.  In short, the workplace is where it's at.

It is my personal belief that the current mob mentality that passes itself off as democracy in America these days would cause the founders of this country to roll over in their graves.  Democracy was never meant to mean that a majority could or should somehow strip minority peoples of their freedoms.  Still, here we are again.  Here we find ourselves having to justify why good, law-abiding, hard-working people in this country deserve the most basic of human rights to those who outnumber us, and who would take them from us.  It's not democracy.  It's fear.  It's an environment where the strong can prey on the weak.  It's a mentality that somehow justifies hate and prejudice.  Democracy without a heart is simply oppression with a smile on its face.

That's why the workplace has become such a battle ground.  The rules that govern our current broken political climate do not apply there.  Politics and Economics are the Yin/Yang of today's world - a love/hate relationship in an ongoing tango where both are struggling to lead and neither wants to take a step back.  Decisions are not made based on popularity - they're based on the bottom line.   As an employee you don't get a vote on company policy.  You're there because you have a skill that will help the company be successful in what it does, as are all your peers.  You don't get to choose them.  You don't even have to like them.  But, you DO have to work with them. 

Whatever makes good business sense is the foundation of workplace policy.  We are at a time when economies have become global, and workforces need to work more effectively and more creatively than ever before.  Companies that implement policy to make that happen best will be the most successful.  It's not a political reality - it's a business one.  And, where democracy has failed us - Capitalism will ultimately prove it is more than simply an economic foundation.  It is integral to changing culture. 

It has become apparent to those who find themselves outnumbered or outgunned in legislative arenas that the strategic next step is to take the battle to other venues.  They need to reclaim their message instead of allowing those with a contrary agenda to own it as their own.  How?  By taking the message to the people in places where they congregate.  That includes places where they worship, and places where they work.  It is a grassroots movement based on dignity and respect, and by replacing abstract concepts like gender identity and sexuality with every-day faces and real-world lives we find an opportunity to affect the foundation of democracy.  That is, the entire process isn't built upon politicians as so many with a far-too-inflated sense of self-importance would like to believe.  It's based on people.  And, the doorway to change isn't through changing politicians,  it's by educating people.   Where is that most likely to happen?  The workplace.

Why is that pertinent to transgender people?  Because we're employees.  Most of us have a job.  Most of us need a job.  Many of us have spent a significant portion of our lives building careers and self-identities that are heavily intertwined with the work we do to earn a living.  And, as with everyone else, we bring it all to work everyday.  The question isn't if we're going to put it out there for everyone to see.  It's how we're going to do what we're paid to do as workforces shrink and the honor of even having a job requires more and more time and effort, while at the same time balancing everything else going on in the background. 

That's why diversity has become such an important concept in successful companies around the world.  In my vernacular, diversity is simply "A Respect For Difference".  That's it.  Companies that provide inclusive environments where each employee can bring their full self to work each day realize that they can get the most out of them.  It frees their workers to focus their full attention and energies on the workplace issues at hand, not on struggling with issues in the background.  Companies that establish an environment where people can respect each other for the skills they have, and the work they do will be successful.  It's just that simple.

The transgender "thing" has become the cutting edge in terms of workplace policy.  Do you know the increase in the number of companies that protect employees based on gender identity in expression?  Based on the data collected by the Corporate Equality Index, in 2002 there were only 2 of them.    In 2004 that number had exploded to 59.  Last year, that number had increased to 113.  That's an increase of 92 percent in just a single year.  And, the numbers are continuing to grow every single week..

The key isn't simply helping to develop the business case to support these policies.  It's as much about providing the tools to make them as painless as possible to implement.  It's about doing the legwork that provides data and historical precedent so decisions can be made based on facts, not on irrational fears.  It's about setting goals that are achievable and substantive - both must be in play in order for these things to work.

In 2004 the HRC Business Council published a booklet titled "Transgender Issues In The Workplace: A Tool For Managers".  It was and remains one of the most important resources any of us can provide to our workplaces to better educate them on the myriad of issues that we face.  I would be so bold as to state that this single document played a huge role in helping a significant number of companies implement transgender supportive policy over these past 2 years.  If nothing else, it provided broad visibility to the issues and planted seeds that are now finally starting to take root and grow.

This past year we added two new criteria specifically related to transgender employees to the Corporate Equality Index.  One requires a company to provide at least one transgender health benefit to it's employees and highlights exclusionary language that so many companies currently have in their policies.  The other involves providing formal training regarding transgender issues and/or establishing a formal set of supportive workplace transition guidelines.  Our goal was to raise the bar in ways that affect transgender employees each and every day - to move to the next level in establishing an inclusive workplace free from discrimination and harassment. 

Has this made a difference?  You decide for yourself.  As of today - and it's very early in the process of collecting data for the 2006 survey - twenty-four companies indicate that they offer at least one health insurance policy that covers SRS.  How many of us imagined we'd ever see the day when our SRS would be covered by insurance in this country?  Here's the list I have at the moment.  And, the list is growing as more companies (a) realize the competitive advantage that these policies provide in terms of recruitment, retention, and market-share, (b) find that the costs are actually pennies for each employee, and (c) realize that they've got exclusionary language in their policies in the first place. 

As of the middle of April, the list of companies who report they have Transgender Wellness Benefits that include coverage for SRS is:

And, there are more on the way.  (Note: this data may still need verification)

Within the Business Council we realized early on that a key aspect of helping companies achieve these important new criteria was more than simply defining them, it was providing the tools and the guidance to actually implement them.  For example, it's difficult for a company to establish supportive workplace transition guidelines if they don't know what one should look like, or what one should cover.  As a result, we've been working as a group to establish a best-practice template for companies to use.  We've collected existing policies from supportive companies and we put all the best "stuff" into one single historic document.  This process has been almost a year in the making, and the fruits of our labors were officially released yesterday.

I'd like to thank everyone involved in putting these together (a list is provided at the end of it).  And, I'd like to proudly present the HRC Workplace Gender Transition Guideline template.  If you have yet to transition, you'll thank your lucky stars that these have been developed.  If you transitioned on the job, you'll probably recognize just how helpful they would have been if they had existed way back when.

We're working on other tools, as well, and I'll wait until they're released before discussing them.  The point, however, is that we've come a long way.  Each of us needs to bring these tools to our HR professionals to ensure that they realize they're there.  Each of us needs to realize that we are each little transgender advocates to the people who meet us, and by providing tools like this we're educating and we're de-stigmatizing.  And, in a very real way, the better that we can help companies handle potentially difficult situations in simple and effective ways, the better we can support establishing policies of inclusion. 

Companies who establish these supportive policies are realizing the benefit of "marketing" them to the world.  One recent example is from Kodak, who has an entire website dedicated to their substantial efforts in the area of GLBT Workplace Policy (see it here).  There are many more - all you have to do is look for them.  Others allow their policy to become models, or best practice (see LGB&T: Transgender at Chevron) for others to see.  This spirit of sharing sets an important precedent as it overcomes the natural competitive tendencies inherent to business.  I'm still bitter about a situation from a couple of years ago when a leader in GLBT policy told me they weren't interested in sharing some of their internally developed policies, but they might be interested to "sell" them. 

I'm not naive enough to believe that bad things still don't happen in workplaces around this country.  They do.  Supportive policy doesn't always get translated into supportive action by those who have a different personal agenda.  I get emails every single week from people who come out at work and suddenly find themselves on leave or asked to resign.  I have a dozen or more friends who have been forced to re-think their careers because it was taken from them in the course of their transition.  As with early civil rights legislation enacted to protect African Americans and women in this country, there are those who are not happy about these developments and who refuse to acknowledge them.  However, as a community the better we can provide visibility to these vigilantes the more likely we'll have positive outcomes.  To me, that's what community is all about - watching out for one another.

We are taking the message to workplaces.  Each and every day.  And, we are making a difference there.  We are demonstrating that our talents, our skills, and our energies are not diminished by acknowledging our true selves.  And, we are establishing precedent for all those who will come behind us.  In the face of those who would label us as selfish, I can't think of anything more altruistic.  And, although I think as a community we often tend to understate the meaning of courage, I can't think of anything more courageous.

[Posted 5-13-2006]