I can't even get an $8 an hour job at Target! "Background report" with 2 names!

[SomeMTF]

I am pre-op. I put now F in papers when they ask gender. But the law here should protect me when I do so.  ( It is not my opinion, I have been legally confirmed as female.)

[xsocialworker]

 I am a retired social worker . This may not be of any use and this post may be getting stale. but---as a post-op TS woman who has worked with the TS population in HIV/AIDS awareness, substance abuse, and life skills in transitioning, I have always told potential employers up front that I am TS. It did create a problem for a while, but I did get better in my presentation and got a great job on a Federal grant. If you saw the movie "MILK", you must see how our community will never get equal rights without coming out and demanding equality. I definitely felt "stealth mode" was unethical as a TS counseling other transgender people. I think that I have a very effective feminine persona, but I still feel that being out is liberating and the first step to real equality.

[Susan]

This is one reason I am so anti-stealth. As long as we keep to the shadows we allow ourselves to be marginalized and victimized. There are way more TS's and Transgender people out there than most people would believe in their wildest dreams...

[Julie Marie]

This is one reason I am so anti-stealth. As long as we keep to the shadows we allow ourselves to be marginalized and victimized. There are way more TS's and Transgender people out there than most people would believe in their wildest dreams...

You're preaching to the choir here.  I've been saying this for years but have yet to make much headway.  There's a seriously intense fear out there.

Julie

[tekla]

Agreed.  Everything comes out in the end anyway.

[Janet_Girl]

This is one reason I am so anti-stealth. As long as we keep to the shadows we allow ourselves to be marginalized and victimized. There are way more TS's and Transgender people out there than most people would believe in their wildest dreams...

That is one reason why I have not went stealth even pre-op.  I think that if one is open about their TS past, more people would be somewhat understanding about the past name.

Also if you can get a paper application, try 'Will explain at interview".  It means outing yourself but that goes back to what Susan said.

Janet

[SarahFaceDoom]

How does one get a hollywood editing job making 70,000--100,000?  I want that, please.

[Kimberly]

For what little it is worth, a female relative of mine has a traditionally male first name.
^*shrug*

[Hazumu]

How does one get a hollywood editing job making 70,000--100,000?  I want that, please.

Step 1 - can you cut?  Can you cut really, really well?

Step 2 - who do you know?

Karen (C'n I see some of your work?)

[SarahFaceDoom]

Oh wait.  Brain fart.  I thought it was editing, like word editing, not film editing.  Yeah I have no film editing experience.

[Hazumu]

This is one reason I am so anti-stealth. As long as we keep to the shadows we allow ourselves to be marginalized and victimized. There are way more TS's and Transgender people out there than most people would believe in their wildest dreams...

Julie's viewpoint has validity.  But THEY (the transphobes) win if we go stealth -- they continue to exercise an almost absolute power over us if we -- for whatever reasons we use to rationalize it -- go and stay stealth.

Yes, when some too-sensitive people find out that you live 'opposite' of what you should be for the body you were born with, they 'goon up'.  I find ways to just be my (true) self matter-of-factly -- and with a LOT of patience, a majority of them loosen up and start treating me normally.  And now they can say that they know an acquaintance who is transsexual.

It's the only way we can counterbalance Right-Wing Authoritarians.

Karen

[Hazumu]

Oh wait.  Brain fart.  I thought it was editing, like word editing, not film editing.  Yeah I have no film editing experience.

Step 1 - modified to the skill you wish to market.

Step 2 - the same...

=K

[xsocialworker]

 Nothing wrong with opposition being an identity. What about Harvey Milk and Dr. King?  I could list so many more people who achieved justice by being in "opposition".  As for being "bathed in mud", we live in a classist culture and those transgender people who are able to aquire a good income, health care, and a good job can succeed. Unfortunately, many can't. Go to the Equality Florida www.eqfl.org for statistics on infection rates in TG people. I was fortunate never to have been in the gutter and that allowed me the opportunity to be part of programs helping others. I was the first TG to get invited to train law enforcement officials on TG issues in my very conservative Southern state. THe only way to get equal rights is to plug away tirelessly. There will be a "Lobby Day" in Tallahasse on March 16th and I hope we get a lot of people.

Thank you.

[SomeMTF]

All transwomen could be outed by chromosome test. 

[xsocialworker]

1) There is no reason to believe that all people have the so-called appropriate set of chromosomes for their birth gender.

2)  There is no serious medical reason to ask anybody to take a chromosome test unless the person wants one.

3) Until it happens, presuming some agency would see some public reason to require such a test is only demoralizing paranoia. We cannot allow ourselves to think like that. Public acceptance of the TS condition is increasing over-all. Consider that the general public gets its info from Discovery Health rather than Springer.