Exploring Issues Trans People Face in the Workplace

Cecilia Gentili is a survivor. Some 15 years ago the transgender woman left her native Argentina, fleeing discrimination, violence and sexual abuse -- trauma so pervasive that even with therapy, she still can't talk about what she endured.

But she discovered that life in New York City to be difficult too. Translatina, Gentili was undocumented and couldn't speak English. What documents she did have contained her old name and gender, and finding employment was nearly impossible. Gentili picked up occasional work here and there as a hair stylist, a trade she'd learned in Argentina, but a stable job -- and life -- always eluded her grasp.

"Of course, you have to take into account that I didn't have documented status at the time, and there was the language barrier," Gentili says. "It wasn't the best situation, right? But being transgender was always an issue when I looked for a job. Nobody said, 'No, I'm not hiring because you're transgender.' But historically, transgender people, especially trans people of color, have faced huge employment disadvantages."

Statistics prove what Gentili knows firsthand: Unemployment, job discrimination and poverty disproportionally affect the transgender community. "The discrimination trans people face has been widely reported on," notes Glennda Testone, executive director of New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. "For example, almost all workers report being unfairly denied a job, and a third of black trans people have incomes of less than $10,000 a year. Those are two widely reported statistics."

In 2013, a massive study by a consortium of organizations that included the National Center for Transgender Equality, Movement Advancement Project, Center for American Progress and Human Rights Campaign (HRC) unearthed further disturbing data. According to the report A Broken Bargain for Transgender Workers, transgender workers report unemployment at double the rate of the population as a whole, and 44 percent of transgender people who are currently working are underemployed. Transgender workers are also almost four times more likely than the population as a whole to have a household income of less than $200 a week.

While finding even entry-level employment is difficult enough for transgender individuals, keeping it can be just as challenging. Whether workers have transitioned or are transitioning on the job, they can be subject to intense discrimination and harassment. Transgender men and women may be fired, forced to use restrooms inconsistent with their gender identity or endure abusive comments, with coworkers pervasively referring to them by an inappropriate name or pronoun. Other discriminatory conduct includes reducing transgender employees' hours and refusing them promotions or equal health benefits. Despite widely held conceptions to the contrary, this treatment is in many cases illegal.

Twenty states plus the District of Columbia currently have employment nondiscrimination laws that cover gender identity, and hundreds of cities across the country have nondiscrimination ordinances on the local level. And although the Equality Act -- which would create national civil rights protections for the entire LGBT community -- remains stalled in Congress, there is federal-level job protection available. Thanks to several groundbreaking cases brought by the Transgender Law Center, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now prohibits employment discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. This includes not only biased hiring and firing practices, but also adverse actions like prohibiting an employee from using a bathroom consistent with their gender identity.

"There are a lot of people that don't understand that they have protections against employment discrimination," says Sasha Buchert, staff attorney at the Transgender Law Center. "The Supreme Court and the vast majority of courts have interpreted Title VII -- which is the civil rights statute that prohibits employment sex discrimination -- to include gender identity and nonconformance with gender stereotypes. You have a right under sex discrimination laws to file a claim. For example, if you live in a state like North Carolina and you don't have state-level explicit employment protections and you experience discrimination, you can file an EEOC complaint if you work for a company with 15 or more people. Now if you work for one with fewer than 15 people, you don't have that recourse. And there are a lot of companies that have fewer than 15 people. That's another reason why explicit state and federal gender identity and sexual-orientation employment protections are needed."

Of course, it's not easy in most cases to prove discrimination, even for people covered by employment protection: as Gentili noted, she was never told outright she wasn't getting a job because she is transgender. But for those enduring bigoted behavior on the job who want to take action, Buchert advises documenting everything immediately, as it occurs. Names, dates, events and places should be carefully recorded. And although online guides are available to walk people through filing an EEOC complaint, Buchert recommends reaching out to an organization like the Transgender Law Center, Lambda Legal or the ACLU, which may provide free legal counsel.

There are some small bright spots proving that change, however incremental, is happening. According to the HRC Corporate Equality Index, today 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies have protections in place against gender identity discrimination. And 511 companies in the latest survey offer healthcare benefits for transgender-related services. "We want to point out the great commitment many corporations have made to nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity," says Beck Bailey, deputy director of employee engagement with HRC's Workplace Equality Program.

"For example," Bailey continues, "many companies surveyed have written sets of practices around how to manage on-the-job gender transition. Our research certainly supports a growing movement and strong commitment by corporate America to inclusive policies and practices, and that means that things are getting better, at least for some. But it's still a very challenging landscape. We see these anti-LGBT bills across the country -- many of them are transgender specific and aim at restricting trans peoples' rights. There are still a lot of barriers, and one of those barriers might be even getting the job in the first place."

To help transgender folks enter the workforce -- and encounter better conditions once they get there -- the LGBT Community Center in New York last summer instituted one of the very first grassroots transgender livelihood programs in the country. This trailblazing spectrum of services grew from the organization's staff listening to the needs of their clients. "We have groups of trans women we work with around issues of health," explains Testone. "And these women would say to us, 'Look, that's great that I can get an HIV test here, but what I really want is a job.' So that's when we started asking ourselves how we could not only help them create a situation where they could support themselves, but also change the system so that more jobs exist for trans folks."

Changing the system isn't easy, but the community center is working toward its goal in a number of ways. They're helping train companies that want to make their workplaces more trans-inclusive and -affirming, as well as stepping up to instruct city agencies about the legal guidelines in the Human Rights Commission code serving trans individuals. The center is also reaching out to people who will one day be job providers by offering workshops and events at educational institutions like LaGuardia Community College, Queensborough Community College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It's all in the service of creating a wide network of employers who understand and embrace trans people.

This flip side of these efforts is the community center's career-development program for the transgender community, which currently serves about 35 people. Help with writing resumes, preparing for interviews, improving communication skills, dealing with anxiety and dressing appropriately for the workplace are all available. "We want to provide our clients with the tools and education so they'll have opportunities for good-paying jobs," explains Cristina Herrera, the center's opportunities coordinator for transgender programming. "Not just any type of employment -- higher-paid employment is what our community needs. Because having an employment opportunity that's minimum wage is not really going to solve any issues. People need to have decent pay."

Cecilia Gentili can attest to the helpfulness of the LGBT Community Center's transgender livelihood program, where she was taught computer skills and sent to classes to learn how to be an HIV prevention counselor. After an internship at the center, she went to work at New York's Apicha Community Health Center, where she oversees a program assisting some 500 patients. When asked how life is now, Gentili's answer is swift and emphatic. "I'm doing great. I was talking with a friend today, and I said, 'This is the happiest time of my life.' It has a lot to do with being able to have a job and income and stability. Stability really changed everything."

After a moment she adds, "I'd like to say that being trans is just like being any other person, but unfortunately it's not. Life is hard for us. But there's always hope in a place like the center that offers these kinds of programs. I found that my life changed when I connected with my community and with organizations that work for us. You don't have to do it on your own -- there is help out there. You just have to reach for it."