Trangender, Google and ENDA

Sunday, June 25, 2006

I received an email post this morning regarding a particular transgender individual's experiences in the job market.

She was in the interviewing process when the interviewer looked up and asked had she been involved with a number of trangender activist organizations. The interviewer had simply "googled" her name and up popped hundreds of links.

In the face of all of the evidence, she replied in the affirmative. The remainder of the interview was superficial and cursory. It was obvious she was not going to get THAT job.

Was I dismayed?? Of course. Was I surprised?? Unfortunately, no...

As much as the GLBT community has discussed recently the desperate need for ENDA, and as intense as the fight has been by activists...we have made little progress towards an end to discrimination for the TG community and, as evidenced by this specific individual's experiences, the hits just "keep comin".

Not too long ago, a survey was done in San Francisco citing the below average income, employabment and wealth statistics, across the board, for transgender individuals. This study is demographically drawn from one of the most accepting locales in the country. Granted...there HAVE been strides in the major metropolitan communities in NC...Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, the Research Triangle. But...I would be willing to bet that very few of those individuals who have good jobs and financial security are both non-self employed and openly transgender. Here in rural North Carolina, I am living proof.

This is a fight we cannot afford to give up...we are talking survival. We are certainly not the first, nor will we be the last, to face wanton discrimination, bigotry, intolerance and marginalization.

So...even in the face of this new electronic obstacle, we must remain steadfast.

I resist any kind of elitist or separatist agenda...and...the thrust of my argument in working for ENDA has been the concept of commonality. We are not so different after all. We, as well as other non-transgender people, have the same desires goals, likes, dislikes, highs and lows. In short...the only difference is our individuality with regard to gender presentation. This includes the entire spectrum of gender diversity.

I work towards an embrace of that same individuality, of the right for all people to discover who they REALLY are, to really know themselves, to undergo that process Jung called individuation. I guess I would have to say that our particular struggle is part of a larger one in which mono-mania has tried to eliminate diversity. That is the real struggle...to appeal to our world's multitudinous and diverse nature and to champion any individual's right to truly "be themselves".