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March 23, 2007
My name is Daryl Herrschaft and I am the director of the Workplace Project at the Human Rights Campaign Foundaiton in Washington, D.C. We are the research and educational arm of the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organization with more than 700,000 members and supporters nationwide. I’d like to thank the City Commission for allowing me the opportunity to present to you today.
Since 1998 I have been evaluating and advising employers of all kinds on their policies and practices regarding transgender employees. In the past ten years we have seen a dramatic rise in understanding on this issue in lock-step with the number of employers that prohibit discrimination based on an employee’s gender identity and then demonstrably support employees who transition on the job.
Cities and counties, police departments and school districts around the country now specifically include protections for transgender workers in their employee handbooks. The number that do so has more than tripled since 2000 from 30 municipalities to 92 today. These include places such as Dallas Texas, Toledo Ohio, Allentown Pa, Louisville Kentucky, Peoria, Illinois and the City of Largo.
In the private sector the growth in protections for transgender employees has been even more dramatic. In 2001 only 8 companies in the Fortune 500 included gender identity in the non-discrimination policies. Today 124 do. That is more than 15 times the number that did just six years ago. These include area companies such as Walter Industries in Tampa, Techdata in Clearwater and Raytheon which has a plant here in Largo. Nationally companies such as Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, Boeing, Chevron, IBM, Kraft Foods, Motorola and Sears also have these protections in place for their work force.
In fact, the higher up an employer is on Fortune Magazine’s list of the most successful companies in America, the more likely it is to protect its transgender employees from discrimination.
Robin Jarvis who provides human resources support for Dell Computer’s product development division says, "I liken not being 'out' about who you are at work to holding a beach ball underwater. It takes a lot of energy. You have to think about what pronoun you're going to use when someone asks about your weekend. You whisper on the phone. That energy could be used on work. So there's a business reason for diversity. When people are comfortable at work, they are going to be happier and do more, and everybody wins."
And employers that distinguish themselves as respectful of all employees reap gains in recruitment and retention. Hayward Bell, the chief diversity officer for Raytheon Company explained to Fortune Magazine, “Over the next ten years we’re going to need anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 new employees. We can’t afford to turn our back on anyone in the talent pool.”
But neither do employers enter this arena flying blind, not expecting the unexpected and anticipating solutions. Amanda Simpson, a senior-level technical adviser at Raytheon Company who is transgender told us in our research, “Most transgender people and their managers realize that colleagues will need to take some time to come up to speed with the issues.”
Given the mixture of conflicting viewpoints, physical plant space and even emotions employers have begun to adopt what represent a series of options for the best possible way to handle a gender transition. And they have found that it can work. To that end, more than 300 employers nationwide have developed Gender Transition Guidelines for their transgender employees. The guidelines set forth the responsibilities for the employee, the employee’s managers and Human Resources.
Such guidelines are readily available on the Human Rights Campaign’s website and thru various human resource professional organizations. My organization has worked with at least 5 major employers in the United States who have actively managed a transitioning employee and 20 others on developing their own guidelines in the event an employee transitions on the job.
The guidelines layout specific steps for everyone involved to take. These include:
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providing specific guidance on how a transitioning employee should notify his employer;
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identifying a small group of key stakeholder to help plan and effectively communicate the transition, this might include Human Resources, the employees supervisor or outside experts;
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outlining a timeline of how the transition will proceed that includes
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an educational phase for members of the transition team;
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articulation of how other employees, vendors, clients or the public will be informed;
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training and education to the immediate work-team and possibly all employees emphasizing key workplace non-discrimination policies, transition plans and demonstrating full support of upper management; and, finally,
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Effective dates for changes to gender markers on ID badges and personnel files.
Countless employees in both the public and private sector have successfully transitioned in the workplace with minimal disruption. Employers have added policy protections and successfully retained talented employees. The city of largo is in good company in the business community which has been down this path and has illuminated a path forward as employers to make sure that all people on the job should be judged on their merits alone.
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