I'm a contractor working on an army base. I started with my company's HR department. The lady I talked to had no idea what to tell me, so she sent me up the chain. The lady I was now talking to was head of HR. She met with me and told me she's only dealt with this a handful of times, but the company was on my side. We've had a non discrimination policy since 1989 and are in the process of specifically adding transgender to it. She also told me personally that she was on my side no matter what. I then talked to the guy in charge of all of my company's employees at this facility. He too told me he's on my side. He's had a transgender neighbor and a gay brother. He won't let anyone talk down about them. I also came out around the time that President Obama signed the executive order in our favor.
I believe having 2 people in the higher up personally on my side rather than just company policy has helped. They were with me when I made my announcement to the people in this wing of the building. There were initially some concerns about the bathroom, but they got over it. I think they finally realized that yes there are doors on the toilets. I've also made an effort to be exceptionally courteous in the bathroom. Everyone seems to have accepted me now even the ones that were hesitant.
With that said, I saw on an alabama news website that another trans girl working as a contractor for my parent division was forced to use the men's room and was disrespected. She sued the government over it. She won of course. But this person works a few miles away from me and got the exact opposite results I got. I guess I got lucky and things could have happened differently.
