You may remember I asked a few times about incidents you have had at work and also fears in presenting to work Doctors. I said at the time I had been invited to give a talk to ANZSOM about issues of transgender workers and our needs.

Well I gave the talk. I was ill but that wasn't going to stop me.

There was an audience of some 220 the session was lead off by a psychiatrist who explained the basics. Then it was me.

I  started off asking how many people woke up today realising they were in the wrong gender? How many had times they could not get out of bed because there bodies revolted them? How many had lived in a house where all the mirrors were covered, so that they would not see a body that didn't fit there perception.

I explained what it was like being TG, I explained RLE, I explained how we can lose our family, our friends.

I told them of the pain.

I then went into examples you had given me. Chest X-rays, not being FT and frightened we would be discriminated against. Breaking an ankle an being insulted, and many more.
Not just discrimination but down right violation of fundamental human rights.

I explained sex and gender and the poor correlation between them.

I told them of the needs of transmen and transwomen.

The audience was spell bound and I got a standing ovation.

I was followed by the head of BHP Billiton HR who explained the law. He finished by saying his company had one transwoman and she was protected. I took the microphone back and told him I knew of 15 trans*people working for his company, and the number is growing.

He tried to hide his shock.

We made inroads that day, and it is thanks to all of you.

Thank you

Cindy

Great work Cindy, you are a shining light of inspiration!

Hi Cindy -

This is great, and I am pleased that you were given an important platform for this.  (Thanks also for remembering my request for you to tell us about it )

I'm wondering, did you get much feedback afterwards from the audience?  That would also be interesting to hear about.

Many hugs from Madrid!
Julia

Thank you Cindy! Is there a podcast somewhere you can share? I'm sure many of us would love to hear the talk, I know I would.
(((hug)))
<turns to leave>
<turns back>
(((hug again)))
-e

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your efforts and for taking the opportunity to correct the head of BHP HR. 

After thinking about this for ages but struggling to write my thoughts down, I guess I am left with this.  Is BHP that far behind or is the response regarding one protected employee a reflection of how many trans people (and their managers) deal with the workplace at a local level and it doesn't necessarily get back to head office?  Legal protections embedded in HR policies are great but it is the culture of inclusion at each workplace that might have a greater impact on the individual. When I worked at one of the banks in Melbourne, I wasn't aware of any trans emplyees.  My electrolysist knows of 10+ at the same place!!!

My work is preparing for my transition right now and the protections under Victorian law have just been assumed by everyone as having application.  The culture of inclusion (while being assumed to an extent) is the focus of some communications around the organisation's expectations on all staff.  Since I am the first to transition on the job, I get to review and approve these coms and any other relating to transition. My situation is slightly different since we are relatively small (2400 staff) and I sit 10 metres from the CFO!!  I guess our head of HR will soon be able to confidently state she has 1 trans woman too.  Hopefully she will add "as far as she is aware".

Love to everyone

Emma

Quote from: EmmaD on August 29, 2014, 07:31:24 PM
After thinking about this for ages but struggling to write my thoughts down, I guess I am left with this.  Is BHP that far behind or is the response regarding one protected employee a reflection of how many trans people (and their managers) deal with the workplace at a local level and it doesn't necessarily get back to head office?  Legal protections embedded in HR policies are great but it is the culture of inclusion at each workplace that might have a greater impact on the individual. When I worked at one of the banks in Melbourne, I wasn't aware of any trans emplyees.  My electrolysist knows of 10+ at the same place!!!

Hi Emma

I think your your question is most interesting.   I work for a 100,000-employee northern European company, and we don't even have a stated LGBT policy.  Global HR knows that this needs to be fixed, but on the other hand the attitude of the company towards gender and orientantion differences seems to be "If you're a diligent employee; the rest is your private business."  I agree that a stated policy enshrines protection, but that's mostly covered already by national law and by a more generic company policy on cooperation and respect for difference.

I also think that if BHP Billiton as the example has 10+ transgender employees, and doesn't know it, this may simply be due to localised HR or people who entered in stealth.  Certainly they don't know how many gay or lesbian employees they have, because this is irrelevant, and it should be exactly the case for transgender people.

Good luck with your transition at work.  I was surprised at how smooth mine was (July 11th this year).  Of the 150 emails I sent out to people in my "ecosystem", I got back over 60 replies, all positive.  My manager received one silly email and he swiftly dealt with that privately.  So far so good....

Hugs
Julia