Subject: small world

Hallo Girls

I once again realised this morning just how small the world is and at any point in time we'll get into contact with someone who will tell us "oh by the way, so-and-so sends her/his regards".

Wendy embarks on the first day of the rest of her life

I'd lived as a female outside of work for about a year, totally confident, I'd go anywhere and do anything. But even this wasn't enough there was still something wrong in my life. I knew that I had to move on. . . ..I just didn't know how to go about it. It seemed to me that I had two choices. I could disappear and pop up somewhere else, as someone else. Maybe this way I would be accepted as a female and wouldn't get any hassle from anyone. Or I could come out at work in my home town and try to keep everything in my life that I've worked for. This way I may have to suffer some bigotry, but would it be worth it?

by Melanie McMullan (June 1994)

Sexual harassment in the workplace is, unfortunately, something that women, in particular, may face during their working lives. Women go out of the home and into the workplace, expecting to be treated as workers and colleagues, and not as sex objects, or substitute wives, or to be reminded that they are women. Those who are transsexual, and particularly male to female transsexual, will be no exception to this, and may face reverse gender harassment.

(An article to Trans Etiquette from the Metropolitan Community Churches - an worldwide, inclusive christian movement)

MCC is a wonderful, diverse community of many types of people, from many backgrounds and experiences. 

Throughout our history we have learned to bridge the differences between us and celebrate them. 

Sometimes this has been a challenging and thought-provoking process.

Transsexualism: A Guide for Employers

Transsexualism is the most pronounced form of Gender Dysphoria, in which a person experiences such a deep conflict between their physical sex and their mental gender that they have no choice but to embark upon the process of Gender Reassignment. Persons with this condition are likely to have been under a great deal of stress for many years prior to embarking upon treatment. The treatment has a very high success rate (over 97%) in alleviating the person's suffering and helping them to function better both in society and at work.

By Tina Livingstone

Introduction

Transitioning at Work is probably one of the most awesome events that you will face. Whilst you will have spent years coming to terms with your identity you will also have become aware that the majority of people are unlikely to have had any direct experience of transsexual people, and that some may have had their views clouded, if not thoroughly tarnished, with misconceptions created by media hype. Since few of us approach the unknown steadily, when you are preparing to come out at work the potential for problems and prejudice can cause a lot of anxiety. This leaflet aims to provide you with strategies to make an awesome task achievable, and ease anxieties through examples of good practice and real experience. I hope that you will find it both enlightening and useful.

Equal opportunities policies

Equal opportunities policies which refer to discrimination on grounds of sex can now be considered automatically to include discrimination on grounds of transsexualism.  Employers who wish to promote anti-discriminatory practice and who have policies and procedures which cover of areas such as sexual orientation, culture and religion, age and HIV status as well as race, sex and disability may add "Gender identity" to their list.  Other policies should be checked to ensure they would adequately cover a transsexual employee, particularly those dealing with confidentiality, harassment, allocation of resources (such as office space and equipment), access to development (such as training, internal job vacancies and promotions), pensions and insurance.

Records and confidentiality

transsexual

Medical treatment during employment

Time required

transsexual people undergoing medical and surgical procedures related to Gender Reassignment may require some time off from work.  Assessment by a qualified professional may take several months or years and appointments may involve the individual traveling long distances, and so are likely to be a day in duration each time.