Living_as_a_Transgender_at_Work

Living as a transgender at work Week 2 assignment Kevin Spreda January 30, 2011 The world is full of different individuals from color, race genders, and religions. We all have issues that we deal with. These issue range from many things and change based on the individual. There are laws that protect each and every one of us in society and in the work place, so everyone thinks. This can be said for everyone unless you are a transgender or cross dresser. To anyone that does not know what transgender is basically it is an individual that was born one gender but acts or dresses as the other gender. This can also lead to have surgery to become the opposite gender as well. For the most part transgendered are just cross dressers and only about ten percent of transgender actually go to the extreme of having surgery. For over thirty three years I have had to deal with this issue in my life that is treated differently. In the business field it should not be considered a problem, but unfortunately it is a big issue that can be considered unethical. This issue is that I am a transgender Individual. I live my life at work as a man the gender I was born, but I live my life outside of work as a women. In the work place a transgender individual falls under no equal rights laws and we can be terminated just because the bosses do not care for someone who dresses like a woman when they are a man. I am a manager for a local fast food chain that is also nationally known. They have over twenty five hundred restaurants throughout the world. With that many stores you would think being transgender would not be a problem, but every day I go to work I hear jokes and chatter about the gay community and transgender cracks. These may not be directed to me as I have kept this side of me a secret for so long. Being transgender has always just been so easy to hide for the safety of myself because it is not common or very popular. When it comes to working in the business area you learn to just deal with it because you need to work. Society is changing and one day it will be ok for a transgender to work without the persecution they suffer every day. Sure transgender should never have to hide them from society because it is who they are. Ethically it is unfair for anyone to call anyone a name. The law is there to protect individuals from different races and religious backgrounds. The law tells us we can’t make judgments on the individual’s background for all these other reasons, but why not for the transgender community. Transgender have learned to accept this problem for the reasons of the law unfortunately. Currently the Lesbian gay transgender community is fighting for equal rights in this great country. This is a process that has been hitting a wall for years and is not really showing signs of being fixed any time soon. Society may not change till this fight is won no matter how unethical this may be. I have learned in the fifteen years that I have managed that ethically everyone should be treated equally. Just because the law is not there to protect anyone should not be a reason to treat them differently. In the business field any decision on someone employment should be based on the facts of how they can handle the job. It should never be based on how they dress. Nothing will ever make the world safe for transgender community, there will always be certain individuals that will tell you that being transgender are devils or should be killed. This can be said about anyone in the world, but when the law protects us then it will be a whole lot safer for us to live. No matter what happens over the next few years I will always live the way I have lived. I Know what I am and I know what I do but because I value my life and the life of my kids, meaning I need to work to put food on the table. I will always hide my true gender in the work place till I find that society will accept me for who I am. Is this ethical' NO it really is not but for me it is because ethically I am doing the best thing to protect my children.