The Perfect “Trans-storm”

Please see and use the many links featured in this blog to read additional details.

Raffi Freedman Gurspan, the first openly transgender employee of the US White House (AP Photo / National Center for Transgender Equality)

Raffi Freedman Gurspan, the first openly transgender employee of the US White House (AP Photo / National Center for Transgender Equality)


Many people are familiar with the term, “The perfect storm” that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will impact a situation drastically. I truly believe we are now in “a perfect storm” for the fight for equality including workplace and health benefits for transgender people. Many positive recent happenings have now all aligned so that is there is a tremendous focus on understanding and appreciating this misunderstood and often maligned segment of our population.

As a diversity consultant with a deep expertise in LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Diversity, when I have presented an LGBT Diversity workshops to Human Resources Professionals throughout 2015 (see my blog about this), a vast majority of questions during the Q and A time are about the transgender segment. Just last week I delivered a workshop titled “Corporate and Organizational Support for Transgender People: The Whys and Hows” at the monthly meeting of the HR Management Association of Greensboro (North Carolina) to a sold out crowd of over 150 engaged HR practitioners. Yes – we are not talking New York City nor San Francisco, but here in North Carolina!

Here are the five items in chronological order which I believe have contributed to what I have termed this “perfect trans-storm:”

1) The 2009 “coming out” of high profile celebrity Chas Bono, the child of pop singers Sonny and Cher.

2) The growing popularity of transgender television star Laverne Cox on the hit television show “Orange is the New Black” which premiered in 2013 and is still running. And this was followed in 2014 with a photo of Laverne Cox on the cover of Time Magazine with the story titled “The Transgender Tipping Point – America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier.”

3) The executive order signed by US President Obama on July 21, 2014 making it illegal to fire or harass employees of federal contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and explicitly adding discrimination against transgender employees within the federal government. Link to blog about this announcement.

4) The much publicized gender transition of Olympic champion Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn in July of this year.
SRHM Mag Cover

5) On August 19, 2015, The White house announcing the hiring of its first openly transgender staff member, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, Outreach and Recruiter Director for Presidential Personnel.

Coincidentally, the day I presented my workshop at the Greensboro SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) chapter meeting, the September issue of the SHRM monthly “HR Magazine” was delivered to my home. And the cover story? “The New Face of Diversity – Transgender Employee Policies Are Gaining Support – Are You Ready?”

LGBT Pride Month 2015 – The Year of the “T”

IMPORTANT NOTE: Lots of Useful and Interesting LGBT and Pride Month Links at the bottom of the blog! Any many links throughout the main article! Check them out.

The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, Universally considered the beginning of the modern Gay Rights Movement in the US

The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, Universally considered the beginning of the modern Gay Rights Movement in the US


Traditionally, June is LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride Month commemorating the “Stonewall Rebellion” in Greenwich Village, New York in late June 1969. Led by a set of brave drag queens, patrons of the Stonewall Tavern boldly stood up to police harassment.

In my annual LGBT Pride Month blog this year I want to focus on the “T” (or transgender) in LGBT. Why? This seems to be a watershed time with a significant increase of focus on the transgender segment of our community.

Over the past 12 months as I delivered LGBT workshops and trainings across the country, mostly in a human resources professional setting, about 80% of the questions during the “Question and Answer” time are about transgender issues. Questions like:
• What do we need to do HR policy-wise to be more supportive of our transgender employees?
• How do we make the business case to our senior executives that we as a company should be providing gender transition health benefits for our transgender employees, and that medical treatments and surgeries should be considered necessary and not “optional” care?
• What kind of training do we need to provide to the co-workers of an employee who may be undergoing gender transition?
• What bathroom should a transgender person be using? What should we do if another employee complains about a transgender employee using a certain bathroom?

I believe there are several reasons for this increased focus:
• High profile celebrity transitions (Chas Bono a few years ago and more recently Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner) have made transgender people much more visible. (LATE EDIT: Link to this cool Vanity Fair magazine cover featuring Caitlyn Jenner!)
• Transgender characters are featured as mainstream in a more positive light such as Laverne Cox (link to Time Magazine Interview) in “Orange is the New Black.” In fact Ms. Cox was the first transgender person to be featured on cover of a Time Magazine issue last year with the title “The Transgender Tipping Point – America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier.”

Transgender woman Laverne Cox made history by being the first transgender person on the cover of Time Magazine (May, 2014)

Transgender woman Laverne Cox made history by being the first transgender person on the cover of Time Magazine (May, 2014)


• With a large majority of Fortune 500 companies now providing full inclusion for gay men, lesbian and bisexual people covered under “sexual orientation,” they are now addressing the transgender area (gender identity and expression) that may have not been fully addressed earlier.
• The younger generation now emerging into more leadership roles are much more “gender fluid” and not as tied to strict gender stereotypes and roles.

(NOTE: As a University of Chicago graduate I was delighted and proud as am alumnus to see the Jan-Feb Alumni Magazine include an alumni essay called “On Common Ground” written by transwoman Christina Kahrl AB’90 about her finding acceptance as a transgender women as a baseball writer and television analyst.)

In fact, while I was in the middle of writing this blog, Mr. Val Boston III of Boston and Associates, one of my experienced consulting mentors forwarded me an announcement : Dr. Jamison Green, a pioneering world leader in transgender advocacy (who I even worked with early in IBM’s days of addressing transgender employees) has announced a strategic partnership with the Diversity & Inclusion Center to education organizations about transgender issues in the workplace.

Since it was several transgender people who took the bold lead in the original Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, it is totally fitting that the “T” should be front and center for LGBT Pride 2015!

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Here are some additional past blogs that can serve as LGBT Pride Month Resources:

LINK to last year’s LGBT Pride Month Blog On the Importance of Being a REAL Ally.

LINK: Five things to never say to gay people

LINK: Five things to never say to transgender people

LINK: Five common misconceptions about gay people

LINK: Five Heroes of the early US Gay Rights Movement

LINK: Five Ways CEOs Can Show Support for LGBT Diversity

A Guest Blog: LGBT Gay Diversity in Direct Sales

LINK: Four Quick Points around LGBT Economic Development

LINK: The Intersection of LGBT and Aging

LINK: LGBT and Housing Issues