‘We were born naked, everything else is drag.’ [...] When I raised my hand to clarify the company rule “So anytime we wear a dress shirt we must wear a tie as well right?” the room went silent and my trainer stared at me for a good 2 to 3 minutes and finally answered hesitantly “Yes, the men do, yes.” I decided to ignore the “men do” part. Clearly, my trainer did not have any experience with these types of questions or situations. This is symptomatic of the lack of dialogue on the subject. As with most cases of discrimination in the US, without a federal case there is usually little conversation or awareness. This lack of discourse can leave things open to the discretion of the workplace, but it does not serve the LGBTQ communities at large at all. It can leave gender-nonconforming individuals with more questions than answers. For people who regularly face trauma inflicted by the fear, anxiety and hatred of others, we may not feel safe walking into a workplace in our chosen attire as we have no legal protection.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 02:42:33 +0000
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