Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Insanity has come Full Circle

I have surmised for a long time the push for gender identity rights in the workplace has nothing to really do with transsexuals. Businesses are accustomed to dealing with transsexuals and most fortune 500 Companies have solid guidelines in place for transsexuals or should and I do not really care how old or young the transsexual is by the way.

I firmly believe the transgender community needs protection from discrimination based on what their lifestyle is at home but there is a new push underway and it has begun with this DiversityGuides   post. The following paragraph says it all.


Many people in the gay and corporate communities don’t know this, but transsexual persons, especially those not in leadership positions, are not always great advocates for cross-dressing persons, and vice versa, despite them huddling together under the Transgender umbrella. But, when a company adds "gender identity" to its non-discrimination policy, it’s promising its cross-dressing employees, as much as its transsexual employees, that it will create for them a work environment in which they feel safe, valued, and included. People often cross-dress because of their fluid gender identity, and are thus covered by the words "gender identity."

They now want the right to dress as they please in a Corporate setting and be able to express their gender variance in accordance and I firmly believe they will test this in the US Courts as soon as possible. Cross-dressers, transvestites, and any gender variant individuals have my sympathies but not to express their "alternate" gender identity in a  place of business.  Clients will simply go elsewhere with their business.


This means that cross-dressing employees, including all those who exhibit any transgender behavior, have not only the right to use the bathroom that matches their gender expression at the time, (seemingly the most pressing issue of the day) but also, and more importantly, to protection from hostile colleagues and clients.
In order for corporate policies to be fully understood, and for behaviors to change, we all would benefit from having more cross-dressing people put a face on the issue for us. Cross-dressing heterosexual men, and cross-dressing homosexual men and women, need to tell us who they are, and specifically what they need in the workplace to feel safe and valued. If they don’t put faces on the issue, their needs will regrettably be unmet.

If corporations were smart they would simply have company guidelines that support transsexuals and define a transsexual as someone under the care of a therapist or post surgical because the thoughts portrayed in this post could potentially destroy any good will built into Corporate America for transsexuals which is tenuous in many areas. This is one of the many reasons ENDA will never pass and SHOULD never pass as currently constituted.

What perfect fodder for the religious right this pronouncement is. The problem is transvestites and cross-dressers do not have a gender identity problem they have a social problem and their gender expression may at times be at odds with their birth gender but they DO NOT have a gender identity problem and for anyone to claim that is pure rubbish. A fetish is not a gender identity problem but then maybe it is no longer appropriate or politically correct to say what it really is. 

This post is incorrect in its assumption that gender identity includes cross-dressers and transvestites but then that was really always the reason they wanted transsexual under the transgender banner. As the fetish gets more intense the need for a bigger thrill comes front and center and let us be honest here.  The ultimate thrill for Harry being Harriet after a while has to be Harriet being allowed to work as whichever gender Harry/Harriet selects for the current day. Then of course we will all be required to address them as miss, she, her , and any masculine pronouns would result in the employee being taken to task for  infringing on Harry's right to be Harriet on Tuesday and Thursday.


2 comments:

Susan said...

Great post...an absolutely perfect analysis.

Dana Lane Taylor said...

Just what we need to give ENDA the boost it needs! Men in skirts using the womens restroom. What is this? 3 steps backwards?