It’s a remarkable moment to be openly transgender and
working for a living. Extraordinary
progress has occurred in this timely area of business interest over the last
dozen years or so. For example, in the
year 2000 there were only three Fortune
500 companies with anti-discrimination protection for transgender
employees. Today, nearly half of the Fortune 500 organizations have adopted
policies that protect transgender employees from discrimination.
Despite various political efforts to pass a
transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), there is still
no federal statute that protects transgender workers. However, in an amazing turn of events, in
April of 2012, the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects transgender workers from
on-the-job discrimination. The ruling formally took effect on May 23, 2012, and
the nation's employers have now officially been put on notice that transgender
discrimination won't be tolerated in the workplace.
With all this activity swirling around the transgender
phenomenon, factual resources are sorely needed to help organizations deal with
the many ramifications. However, until
ABC-CLIO chose to publish my book, The Complete Guide to Transgender in the Workplace, there had never been a
full-length, hardcover volume on this leading-edge business topic. I am pleased to report that many people and
organizations throughout the country and around the world have found the book
to be a useful tool.
The goal was always to help people. That’s why I wrote my book. If the book didn’t make a difference, then the
entire exercise was a waste of time and energy.
However, I’m pleased to say that my book is helping organizations to
evolve and people to learn and grow.
One of the most gratifying responses I have received was
from Europe .
Let me share it with you:
I’m a 47-year-old transsexual
woman that recently transitioned successfully at work at Telefónica R&D, in
Spain
--Amanda Azañón
It’s a humbling thing to know that someone half a world away
found my book useful in her successful transition on the job. I take no credit for her success, but I’m
glad I was able to help in some small way.
I’ll probably never meet Amanda Azañón in person, but I know that
her life is now a little better because of something I did. How can you put a price on something like
that? All I can say it that it feels
very, very good.
I’m going to share a secret with you: my book was
rejected 116 times by literary agents and other publishing houses before
ABC-CLIO agreed to publish it. I’m not
sure what that says about the book, but I think it says something about the
lack of insight and/or courage demonstrated by those who turned it down. ABC-CLIO recognized that transgender in the
workplace is a viable, relevant area of business interest, and I’m grateful to
the company for making the choice to publish my book. Organizations have been positively impacted
and people’s lives have been changed because of that forward-thinking--and
historic--decision by this publishing company.
As we celebrate LGBT pride, let’s remember that
progress really is being made, hearts and minds are being touched, and
transgender inclusion is more of a reality today than ever before. I’m honored to be one of many who are working
to make a difference in this area. Thank
you, ABC-CLIO, for doing your part.
Vanessa Sheridan’s website:
www.vanessasheridan.com
Vanessa Sheridan’s Twitter page:
@transconsultant
Thanks again for your book Vanessa.
ReplyDeleteAfter near a year and half of this email to Vanessa a lot of thing happened to me, more of them good, others challenging, a others bad, (but not much).
All can a i say is that my life it isn't a little better now, no, no. "I'ts a lot Better", i can say this very loud :).
Regards
Amanda Azañón
Networking engineer at Telefónica R&D