CHICAGO – Josie Lynne Paul felt hopeful, and terrified, as she walked into an all-staff meeting to tell her co-workers what she'd known for years: that she was a transgender woman. And that she was ready to live as a woman full time.
A consultant gave a presentation on what it means to be transgender and in transition. Paul, a social worker, delivered a statement explaining that the pain of not being true to herself had grown too great to bear.
Most colleagues were kind, Paul recalled. But a handful voiced objections. They said they weren't comfortable or needed more time.
In the weeks that followed, Paul noticed subtle changes in her workplace relationships. She was left off an invitation to a birthday party. She showed up at the cafeteria where she'd often joined colleagues for meals to find no one there.
"Probably what hurt the most was that I had been left kind of alone," Paul said.
As transgender people come in from the social margins, they are increasingly coming out of the shadows at work. Employers are facing the challenge of guiding the transition not only of their transgender employees but also of co-workers and clients who must adapt.
Corporate America has recently made progress toward transgender-inclusive workplaces. Three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies have gender identity protections, according to the Human Rights Campaign's latest Corporate Equality Index, released in November, compared with just 3 percent when it started the report in 2002. Forty percent of employers have at least one plan that covers hormone replacement therapy; in 2002, it was zero.
But it's one thing to have policies. It's another to have a plan to address the nuances of a delicate journey many people struggle to understand.
