Tag Archives: transgender employees

Op Ed: President Obama’s Latest Executive Order Protecting LGBT Americans – The True “American” Thing To Do!

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Check out the many useful links to additional resources provided in this blog!

MAJOR UPDATE: On December 4, the US Dept of Labor announced the specific implementation of President Obama’s July executive order adding LGBT protections for federal contractors. All companies with new or modified federal contracts including subcontracts after April 6, 2015 must have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation and gender identity!

President Obama signing the executive order protecting LGBT Americans working at the Federal Government level. (photo by Jewel Samad, AFP / Getty Images)

President Obama signing the executive order protecting LGBT Americans working at the Federal Government level. (photo by Jewel Samad, AFP / Getty Images)


In my last week’s blog “The Great United States / North Carolina Diversity Divide,” (link) I contrasted two recent advances for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) equality and fairness at the US Federal Level with a recent North Carolina Governor’s executive order on equal opportunity that excludes LGBT citizens. One of those Federal advances was President Obama’s promise to soon sign an executive order giving workplace protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity for federal employees and contractors. The big update: the promised executive order was indeed signed by President Obama on Monday, July 21st!

The executive order included two parts. First, it makes it illegal to fire or harass employees of federal contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Second, it explicitly adds discrimination against transgender employees of the federal government (President Clinton had already included sexual orientation protections for federal employees earlier.) And very importantly, the executive order is all-inclusive and does NOT include a bunch of exemptions.

Here are three links to additional details:
• An excellent Huffington Post article about the executive order
• The official White House blog entry
• The actual text of the order.

What I find truly amazing is that some press outlets led with the headline, “President Obama’s LGBT Executive Order Endangers Religious Liberties.” For example, check out this Fox News story (link). Huh? How in the world does providing equal treatment for all Americans in the federal workplace endanger religious freedom? I would think that people of all faiths would want to make sure all people in our country were treated equally. In fact, many supportive religious leaders were in the ceremony when President Obama signed the order. (See photo) Also, check out this link to an excellent supportive commentary written by Rev. Elder Dr. Nancy Wilson, Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches.

Supportive religious leaders gathering in the White House Garden after witnessing the signing of this historic executive order. (Photo courtesy of Rev Rob Keithan)

Supportive religious leaders gathering in the White House Garden after witnessing the signing of this historic executive order. (Photo courtesy of Rev Rob Keithan)


I would argue that there is absolutely no threat to religious freedom by this order. If a company felt so strongly that they should remove qualified LGBT Americans from their company or harass them, then they can make the choice to forgo doing business with the Federal Government. In fact, discriminating against LGBT people does a grave disservice to our country. As an American, I would want all subcontractors working for my government to have the very best, most qualified people working on these contracts regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation and gender identity.

Really – fairness, equal treatment, and having the best people empowered to do the best job they can is the true American way!

Transgender in the Work Place – and announcing a great conference in August

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Transgender is an umbrella term for the spectrum of people whose gender identity or expression does not conform to society’s expectations of male and female. In some cases, gender expression takes the form of clothing, hair style, voice and body characteristics. In other cases, we are taking about gender identity, which is the way a person feels internally about who they really are. This means there are people who may have been born as physical males, but deep down inside they feel they are female. And there are people who may been born as physical females, but deep down inside believe they are truly male. This is an oversimplification since there are wide ranges of possibilities. The most current highly visible transgender person is Chaz Bono, formerly Chastity Bono, now the son of Sonny and Cher.

“Left Hander in London” is an excellent new book explaining many aspects of the transgender life. More information at end of blog.

So what does this mean for the workplace? With more visibility given to transgender people, more people desire to go through the gender transition process while remaining in their jobs. Instead of moving to a far away city and starting life all over again, many transgender people now want to continue in the community and company where they have their network of friends and have built professional expertise. And it makes sense that a company would want to support such employees and retain this important talent. As an employee transitions from male to female, or female to male, they still retain the those skills and company knowledge that make them a valuable employee.

A short blog does not provide the space to go through the policies and procedures that companies can execute to support gender transitioning employees. But there is a great opportunity later this summer for you, your company or enterprise to gain this valuable knowledge. The SouthEastern Transgender Health Summit (Tagline: Providing Access, Promoting Wellness) will be held in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina in Asheville August 23-25, 2012. Though the primary audience for this event is healthcare providers including physicians, nurses, psychologists and other mental health professionals, a special track has been designed for human resource professionals and business leaders, valuable for everyone including those not in the health field. The overarching goal of this conference is to increase the awareness of need, and to improve the quality and accessibility of culturally competent care for those who identify as transgender. Link here for more information and to register for this summit. I will be a presenter and panelist as well as having a display booth all weekend.

Additional Resources:
• Left-Hander in London: A Field Guide to Transgenders, Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals. This newly published book is written by JJ Gufredo, a successful transgender business owner and process consultant. Click here for more information and to order this informative and inspirational book.
• Link to an excellent article on transgender employees in the magazine “Insight into Diversity” (pages 22-24). Magazine