Managing NYC's Largest Bike Rental Company as a Transgender Woman
Kate Freitag, The Huffington Post, 08/08/2013 1:18 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-freitag/managing-nycs-largest-bike-rental-company-as-a-transgender-woman_b_3713962.html
Is she a "transgender bike mechanic" or a "bike mechanic who is transgender"? "Gay ball player" or "ball player who happens to be a lesbian"? Upon coming out, I found that most people would pose these kinds of questions. I would prefer the latter description in the above cases, where one part of my identity does not necessarily describe the other...
No matter the company, the workplace was always a challenge for me. I vainly tried to steer the attention away from my obvious transition and allow my skills to be judged, free of prejudice, bias or notions of being transgender... Nevertheless, I couldn't escape discrimination and often found employers hesitant to introduce me to clients, no matter the quality of my work. Promotion always seemed questionable or out of sight. One employer once had me use a more gender-neutral variant of my own name, even after my name was legally changed. I was also written up for refusing to wear a name tag with my given name at another workplace.
With all these collective professional experiences, I found relief at Bike and Roll New York City... where I'm treated like any other employee, with responsibilities, duties and expectations.