One of the news items in the Tuesday  News summary was The 10 worst companies to work for if you're transgendered. The list was compiled by the Human Rights Campaign. For those too lazy to click on links, the HRC describes itself as follows:

The Human Rights Campaign represents a grassroots force of over 750,000 members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the communiy.

They do more than just put out the annual list of the 10 least-transgender-friendly workplaces, though. Ever wonder just how people explain their sex change to employers and co-workers?  HRC hosts a video featuring Donna Rose on that tough-to-tackle topic.

(photo: Donna Rose giving presentation)

Getting that first job in your target gender is a wonderful feeling

What a relief! It's important not just because it affirms who you are, or because you have to eat, but also because living on what is, for you, the wrong side of the gender divide, is stressful; trying to live on both sides at the same time is complicated, fraught with problems, expensive, and will just sap the energy right out of you.

Be prepared to accept a different type of job and lower pay.

Being a receptionist, secretary, or office manager might not be the same in terms of either prestige or money, but it provides something that many jobs don't - public validation of you as a woman. Also, because there's less competition for these traditional "pink collar" jobs, and the money in play is less, the screening process is a lot less rigid. Can you use a computer, answer phones, take messages, and file? Then you have a good chance of landing that important "first job."

Why a "pink collar job"

First, why not? It's honest work. Second, often it's a woman doing the hiring, and I've found that women are much more helpful. It might sound like a sterotype, but you'll find there really is a "sisterhood", just like you'll find that men are often more interested in looking at your boobs or legs than your other qualifications.

Also, you might want to do this because you want a clean break from your current job. Your co-workers, no matter how well-intentioned, will remember the "old you". There's nothing worse than someone accidentally (or, worse, on purpose) calling you by your old name in front of someone who doesn't know ... and it just spreads. Even if nobody slips up, new hires and outsiders will wonder why, every time an issue arises about work done by "the old you", it's referred to "the new you".

And then there's that stupid "which bathroom" issue. At a new place, chances are nobody is going to make a fuss, since they don't associate you with your previous gender. Being able to use the women's washroom without worry is worth a pay cut.

The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. federal government job site now bans discriminating against transgenders

".WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has inserted language into the federal jobs Web site explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender identity.

The protection is expected to apply to the small transgender population — people who identify their gender differently from the information on their birth certificates — and it merely formalizes what had been increasingly unchallenged government practice over several years."
 

Of course, there are the "usual suspects" who are against any such progressive action.