NYTimes: Transitioning in the workplace

Maybe I should give up on complaining about this, but it still irks me every time I see an article that is about women’s issues (and now we can add trans women’s issues) in the NYTimes in the Fashion and Style section. Articles about health, doulas, women, etc. It seems like every article that interests me is in this section and it pisses me off. Ok, rant over.
Despite the placement of this article, it’s actually a quite positive piece about trans women’s experience transitioning in the workplace.

Breanna L. Speed waited four years before announcing to her co-workers that she would not be Wendell anymore. She was concerned that the revelation that she felt more comfortable living life as a woman than in the male body she was born with would jeopardize her job at Hewitt Associates, an outsourcing company in Lincolnshire, Ill., where she had worked as a database administrator for seven years.
But since Feb. 26, 2007, when she walked into the office as Breanna (with a company ID and a workplace paper trail that carried her new name), Ms. Speed said she has received nothing but support.

What’s really great about the article is it puts the onus of guaranteeing a smooth transition on the employers and managers of the companies, rather than the employee themselves.

Join the Conversation