11 July 2015

The Most Transgender-Inclusive Companies

According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey Report, 90 percent of trans people have reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment or discrimination on the job--or hid who they are in order to avoid those things.  That same survey found that 47 percent of trans people experienced an adverse outcome--such as being fired or not hired, or denied a promotion--because they are gender non-conforming.

They're the lucky ones:  They actually had jobs.  We are more than twice as likely to be unemployed--or, worse, never to have had a job--than other people are.

In such a climate, it almost seems contradictory for someone to make the list of "the most transgender inclusive companies".  But that is what the Human Rights Campaign has done.

To be fair, there are companies that are making efforts to foster transgender inclusion in their work environments.  Some have gone as far as to create protocols to help workers transition while working for them.  

Some of those companies are the ones we might expect--like Disney, which has made great efforts to be LGBT-friendly before other companies thought of doing so.  Other such companies on the list are Nike and Starbuck's.

However, some are surprising--at least to some people.  Eastman Kodak has long been known for its efforts at inclusivity, which is surprising until you realize it's in Rochester, NY, which was one of the first cities to add language to include and protect transgenders in its human rights laws.  Then there are companies like Apple, Microsoft and other tech firms.  I'm guessing that they're "early adopters", so to speak, of trans-inclusiveness because to be technological innovators, they have to "think outside the box".  


What's truly surprising, though, is how many financial-services and insurance companies are on the list.  i guess they're realizing that it's best to recruit and retain talent, no matter what body it comes in or how it identifies itself.  At least, I'd hope that's true.