On a related note, I was gratified to see what Martin Duberman, author of "stonewall" had to say recently about trans-discrimination:

"Duberman, on the other hand, continues to follow what’s happening in this country. He’s witnessed the LGBT community become increasingly accepted.

However, he acknowledges it’s only a “particular version.” When it comes to transgender persons, they are still on the outside looking in.

“They aren’t as accepted as a middle or upper-class white male who works on Wall St.,” Duberman says. “The closer you are to the mainstream norm in your behavior, speech and background, the more likely you are to be accepted. If you deviate too much, then I think you’re more likely to face prejudice and even physical brutality.” "
Find the link here:
http://www.nyblade.com/2008/10-14/news/localnews/1241Duberman.cfm

It's great to see this subject addressed academically!

Dr. Weiss, great article, however the troubling issue still remains. Why do you and many "high profile" trans people in the professional A-list feel the need to constantly tell our stories for us ??

Do discrimination and exclusion stories concerning trans folks need to be told and investigated ?? ABSOLUTELY, however the way in which the trans "leadership" is currently going about it is in my experience doing more harm than good.

For example, no one ever addresses the popular trend these days of trans leaders censuring certain trans employee's stories because their story may damage a pre-existing corporate or political agenda. Yet it continues to occur and these corporations get off scott free, buy HRC off to get the 100% on the CEI index and the trans leaders involved continue to receive the corporate perks. The result, a story that was never exposed and covered- up by the celebrity a-list.

And how about this new wave of self-proclaimed trans "consultants", many of whom do not have any formal training or certification in corporate HR policy or Diversity Strategies, yet they have carte blanche authority to influence corporate officials (many of whom have never experienced trans folks before) to THEIR way of thinking as that they somehow are entitled speak for ALL of us. I have seen many cases and I was one of them where a trans "consultant" or "expert" came into a corporation, influenced corporate officials as to how ALL trans folks should transition in the workplace according to her agenda, received corporate perks as a thank you, all while the existing trans employees were ignored and excluded from addressing their views about their transitions and workplaces. And of course it doesn't stop there as these same "consultants" or "experts" are also self-proclaimed journalists as well and will see fit to censure and bash those same employees for speaking out in protest about it.

So Dr. Weiss, the people who need to tell their workplace stories are the people who experience them, not trans activists, lawyers, high profile trans professionals or anyone else they grease palms with. I find it completely appalling that I constantly see the same celebrity names involved in our workplaces, when in reality you are doing more harm than good.

Do we need change and education in our workplaces. ABSOLUTELY, but we can't do it as a trans community if there continues to be excessive high profile showboating at the expense of other trans folks not in the celebrity activist circle being excluded.

Please remember this post at the next Harvard meeting from an employee who was ruined at her job by high profile trans "spokespersons" / "consultants"

Thank you for your time

Dr. Weiss,

Thank you for your comments and input to my original post. Before I continue, I wish to say that I very much appreciate this type of dialogue being opened in a manner which fosters the addressing of REAL issues facing transgender people in the workplace and where both debate and agreement may be exchanged in a healthy way.

Yes, non-credible, biased and in some cases even fraudulent training by some transgender people to train corporate HR departments is a very serious issue facing many transgender employees, however I feel that the duty lies within those other transgender educators who are approaching this issue in a fair way to help stop this practice from occurring from those who are engaging in it. As we know, however, this issue never seems to be addressed by anyone and the usual phrase in the community is "well that's just the way it is"....... or to people who protest this "you have anger issues"

But from my experience, there is much more to this issue than just inexperienced trainers. Unfortunately, GLBT political activism has crept its way into the corporate training room, many times disguised as "diversity training" or "trans 101 training" and these hidden training agendas often capture the attention of other devout corporate Gay and Lesbian "activists" and the next thing you know a mini corporate PAC has formed and if you disagree with them and their training agenda, WATCH OUT !!

In my case, I believe that a certain transgender political activist who self-appointed herself as a "consultant" used me for information to gain access to corporate HR officials so that she and a few local activist cronies of hers could have clandestine meetings with the HR department to influence them as to THEIR corporate and political trans agenda. I also believe that the common consensus was decided without my knowledge that if I didn't transition on the job in the way they dictated, then therefore I wasn't "one of them" (a true transgender person). And of course if I disagreed with them and exposed this corruption, then that was fine....... the solution was simple. They would conspire with the corporate GLBT sales and marketing department to "subtly" mention me around the local and national GLBT organizations so that my story got covered up "AT ALL COST" and that I kept my mouth shut to protect the company quarterly sales benchmark. Yes, the price I paid for transitioning in the workplace............. by my very own community I might add.

And just as an added bonus, the company is now major corporate "sponsors" of every politically based national GLBT organization, one of which this same activist / transgender "educator" was involved with. Quite a coincidence.....

So having experienced this type of corruption directly by this problematic issue, I strongly denounce any person who tries to educate based on the notion that they speak for ALL transgender people in the workplace, especially when they are trying to further their own personal corporate and political agendas and I fail to understand why other transgender "leaders" are not addressing this problem before more transgender employees are affected. Plain and simple, politics and corporate agendas need to be kept out of the diversity training classrooms !!!

Dr. Weiss, to gather more to my story and the parties involved, I would encourage you to visit another article written on Bilerico and scroll down to the final comments posted by "Guinea Pig" (a metaphor used by the company gay director of Corporate Citizenship and Co-chair of the company GLBT ERG to describe me as a transgender employee). Also, please note the debasing and outing comments I received as a result for telling my story.

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/outside_the_comfort_zone_corporate_suppo.php

Again, thank you for your comments and time in this discussion. I look forward to more dialogue on this important issue

Dr. Weiss, I have three important points that I'd like to raise concerning your observations if I may.

The first touches on your statement about my situation being "unsatisfactory" for ALL involved. Well, I suppose that the term "unsatisfactory" would indeed depend upon which side of the corporate,political and consultant table in which you sit, wouldn't it ?? From a business standpoint, it was COMPLETELY satisfactory for both the company and the trans consultants/activists.........

Think about it, the resignation of a "problematic" trans employee meant that the corporate HR managers could now rest at ease and no longer have to worry about dealing with a transitioning employee. The company GLBT sales and marketing department reps established a strong foothold in our community national non-profits as a result, and the trans "consultants" enjoyed corporate perks in exchange for protectionism of the company brand and successful "good will" advertising in the trans political circles. All in all it was a win / win situation that was completely satisfactory for THEM. Satisfactory for me as the trans employee ??? Well, I think not and I think my resignation after 21 years pretty much explains how UNsatisfied I was with how this situation was undertaken.............

Secondly, thank you for hearing and understanding the point I had made earlier about problematic "consultants" speaking for ALL transgender people. While I am happy that you agree, I would like to go a bit further on this topic.

Sure an important point was raised and a lesson or two may have been learned, but will I (or any other everyday trans person who raises a valid point) ever be recognized for our contribution in the corporate, "professional", consultant, A-list trans circle ?? Will ideas like mine and others who were hard earned ever get mentioned at an HRC Gala or an Out and Equal conference or in some GLBT publication ?? Under the current system, the answer is a clear NO. Someone else in the trans consultant/celebrity clique will always take the credit......... Again, a different trans perspective here.

Lastly, although we both agree on the problematic issue of transgender "sacred cow" advocates and consultants, I think it will be very difficult if next to impossible to get my point across at the number one corporate be-all-tell-all GLBT organization, Out and Equal. Having recently formed an "esteemed" transgender corporate advisory committee, chock full of corporate professionals, consultants, advocates, activists and any other A-list profession that you can think of, I really don't see any of them being open to such a different point of view.......... After all, why should they ?? The current closed system works for THEM so why would they venture to screw up a good thing which solely benefits THEM ??

And what another strange coincidence.... The very trans activist / consultant who I had mentioned in previous posts is a member of that committee and the company also mentioned previously is a major corporate "sponsor" for that organization. How "satisfactory"............ I thought it rather strange why Selisse Berry never returned my e-mail.

Here is a link to that committee. Please note the transgender corporate people who helped "revise" their company diversity policies for "others" after them to follow in their dictation.........
http://www.outandequal.org/about/committees/default.asp

So Dr. Weiss, I really don't see the current trans leadership "system" changing for the better anytime soon until we perhaps see a more diverse panel of trans people sit on these committees rather than the current EXCLUSIVE trans corporate boys and girls only club.

Again, just a few thoughts from someone who has been harmed by our own trans "leaders". Yes they were trying to help all right. The question remains. Just WHO are they trying to help besides themselves !!

Thank you again for your thoughts.