HRC Back Story

Good afternoon,

Yesterday, for the first time ever,  Congress held a hearing to educate members of Congress exclusively on gender identity issues. This groundbreaking event educates members of Congress and helps lay the foundation for congressional action to prohibit arbitrary discrimination against transgender Americans.

Colonel Diane Schroer had a successful 25-year career in the U.S. Army. After she retired, she applied for a job in the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress and was offered the position. At the time, she was beginning her gender transition and informed her future supervisor that she intended to begin her job as a female. Suddenly, the job offer was rescinded.

She testified: “As a Master Parachutist, honor graduate of Army Ranger School, the Special Forces Qualification Force, Command and General Staff College, and the National War College, with two masters degrees, having been awarded the Defense Superior Service Award, four Meritorious Service Medals, five foreign parachute qualifications, and two Expeditionary Medals for combat operations, I hope every day for the call to come from the Library saying, ‘We’ve made a tremendous mistake.’ I am ready and able to serve this country once again, and look forward to the day when I am given the opportunity to do so.”

Diego Sanchez testified about his remarkable story: “I’m a loyal worker, a passionate leader and a man who had to wait, for fear of being fired, to be who I was always destined to be: Diego Miguel Sanchez, an honorable man. ... When my head hits the pillow every night, I close my eyes and think about my friends who are transgender whose lives aren’t easy. I miss my friend Alexander John Goodrum who took his own life. I feel guilty about my friend Ethan St. Pierre who lost his job just because he began his transition from female to male. I was the first transman he met, and he lost his job because he is brave and honest. It wasn’t right. I still lose sleep over that injustice.”

Dr. Bill Hendrix, global leader of Gays, Lesbians and Allies at the Dow Chemical Company, spoke about the reasons his employer has been a leader in creating transgender-inclusive workplace policies: “With a shrinking and ever more diverse talent pool—particularly in the sciences and engineering—it is essential for us to actively include everyone to ensure we attract, develop and advance the very best talent in the marketplace. As an industrial, business-to-business supplier with virtually no consumer marketing, located largely in smaller rural areas, we must work even harder to have an identifiable employer brand to attract top talent. We see our proactive stance on diversity and inclusion as a key element of this brand.”

Sabrina Marcus Taraboletti described the despair she felt when she was fired from her job as an aerospace engineer six weeks after she announced her intent to transition from male to female: “I cannot tell you how meaningless life feels when an event like this happens. I didn’t know where to turn or what future I had. I was humiliated. I was fired.” She went on to criticize those who believe that being transgender is a lifestyle or a choice: “Personally I have lost my wife, most of my assets, and my home in divorce. I have been abandoned by half my family and friends. At the same time, I had to find the $70 – 90,000 of funding and endure the extreme pain of electrolysis, and the various other surgeries required to complete the transition from male to female. All this while trying to stay employed! Believe me, no one wakes up one morning and thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to change my sex today.’”

HRC staffers live-blogged throughout the hearing. Their accounts are here on www.hrcbackstory.org. You can also read letters submitted to the committee by HRC's Coalition on Workplace Fairness and the Religion Council. You can also check out a piece I wrote on Huffington Post here.

While the hearing did not focus on any particular piece of legislation, it was an opportunity—the first opportunity—for many members of Congress to become familiar with the workplace issues facing the transgender community. Together with our coalition partners, HRC will continue to take on the tough work required to pass fully-inclusive federal employment protections.

Warmly,