The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has produced a set of employment guidelines for federal transgender workers for the first time. "Guidance Regarding the Employment of Transgender Individuals in the Federal Workplace," which was released late last month, covers everything from appropriate pronoun usage to insurance policy.
"This really now is the golden standard," said Illinois-based psychologist and gender identity expert Dr. Randi Ettner. "This is a landmark document."
The policy, while not a legal document, mandates that transgender employees be able to transition on the job; use appropriate bathrooms; update their office records and insurance information; and be called their preferred names and pronouns. According to the OPM website, the policy is based on the World Professional Association of Transgender Health standards of care.
"Over the last several years a number of agencies have requested that OPM provide them with information and advice concerning issues that may arise in connection with the employment of transgender individuals in the workplace," the OPM website reads.
While the policy focuses heavily transgender people who identify as only male or female (many transgender people do not identify as either), it is progressive in scope, mandating that transgender people be allowed to use bathrooms consistent with their identity without providing proof of medical procedure.
The guidelines also tackle one of the most commonly-reported fears among transgender professionals: the possibility of being outed at work. The policy states that "employing agencies, managers, and supervisors should be sensitive to these special concerns and advise employees not to spread information concerning the employee who is in transition: gossip and rumor-spreading in the workplace about gender identity are inappropriate."
Ettner works with many transgender clients and said that in many cases, transgender people complete transition medically and socially, but remain closeted at work for fear of being fired. She also said that many trans people are not allowed to use preferred bathrooms at work.
According to the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce (NGLTF), unemployment among transgender people is double the national average, and half of all transgender workers responding to a recent NGLTF survey reported being harassed at work.
Last month, Windy City Times reported on the story of Meggan Sommerville, an Aurora woman who is suing her employer, Hobby Lobby, for denying her use of the women's restroom despite the fact that she has completed her transition from male to female. Sommerville's case represents a growing number of complaints about human resource policies that prevent transgender workers from maintaining employment.
Executive Director of The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) Anthony Martinez called the OPM policy "a great first step." Martinez's organization has advocated on behalf at least five gender-variant workers as part of their Workplace Project, which connects clients to bro-bono legal services when they have experienced discrimination.
"What we find is that a lot of transgender people are dealing with a lot of the issues that this policy put out by the OPM brings up," Martinez said. "These policies that the federal government is adopting are really going to help us in our cases."
Ettner believed the new federal policy will put pressure on private businesses to amend old discriminatory policies.
"It really spells out some of the important details that have been ambiguous in human resource policies," Ettner said. "There are some debilitating consequences for having to live in an insecure, marginalized situation and to be employed as such."
However, Martinez was also quick to point out a flaw in the policy. While the document acknowledges that there are many ways to be transgender, he said, the guidelines themselves fail to deal with transgender people who do not want to medically transition or who are gender non-conforming. That, he said, will be the next battle.
