Metro Weekly

Transgender job discrimination gets air time [video]

”Our organization and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force conducted a survey of 6,500 transgender people in 2008, and we found that the experience of harrassment or discrimination on the job was near universal. A quarter of transgender people, like Vandy Beth Glenn, had lost their job because they’re transgender…. It’s legal to discriminate against transgender people in 38 states….  I think it’s because of lack of education. There’s a lot of misunderstanding and lack of information about the transgender community…. People think that, if someone is transitioning on the job, like Vandy Beth told her employer what she needed to do, that that means they’re going to come to work and appear in some outlandish way; that there’s going to be disruption…. They don’t understand that it’s really not going to be that big of a deal. It’s a big deal for the person who’s transitioning. But in general, it’s a little bit awkward for a little while and then everything goes back to normal. ”

Harper Jean Tobin, of the National Center for Transgender Equality, speaking with Alyona on RT (The Alyona Show)

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