Improving the Experience of LGBT Trainees with a Focus on Gender Identity

Brian William Kaufman, Esq., National Center for Lesbian Rights Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, Director of Mental Health, Child and Adolescent Gender Center, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, UCSF September 30, 2015 Improving the Experience of LGBT Trainees with a Focus on Gender, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression

LGBT 101: Defining Terms • Let’s start by defining some terms we use often to make sure we have a common vocabulary. • Lesbian, gay, and bisexual are sexual orientations. These are classifications based on the gender or genders of the people someone is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to. • Remember – you cannot determine a person’s sexual orientation by looking at them. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people look, dress, and behave all different ways.

Defining Terms Continued • Transgender is often used as an umbrella term to describe a wide range of identities and experiences related to gender. • It is used to refer to many different people, including transsexual people; cross dressers; androgynous people; and other people whose appearance or characteristics are perceived to be gender atypical. • In order to avoid confusion, we will use the term gender nonconforming to refer to this broad range of identities and reserve the term transgender to refer to people whose gender identity does not match their gender assigned at birth.

Defining Terms Continued • Gender identity • One’s internal feeling of being male or female (or sometimes in between) • Gender expression • Social and behavioral characteristics culturally associated with maleness and femaleness • Intersex • Refers to a person who was born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy and/or chromosome pattern that doesn’t seem to fit typical definitions of male or female. An intersex person may have any gender identity or sexual orientation.

Defining Terms Continued • Gender transition is the process by which transgender people move towards living in the correct gender identity. • Some have medical treatment, some do not • Will usually involve taking estrogen/testosterone • Identification documents, such as one’s driver license, birth certificate, are not always changed • Experiences and transitions for transgender people are different, but often very difficult. • Depending on a number of factors, including a person’s economic and other resources, discrimination against them can cause a spiral of other problems.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression Are Different • Sexual orientation refers to the relative genders of a person’s partners • heterosexual • gay or lesbian • bisexual • Transgender people can have any of these sexual orientations. • Transgender is not a sexual orientation, it is a gender identity. • Thus, knowing that someone is a member of the LGBT community does not necessarily tell you what their family may look like.

How is Job Corps connected to the LGBT Community? • Because Job Corps provides an opportunity for youth and young adults who have been marginalized because of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and/or unequal socio-economic structures, the DOL is in a unique position to ensure that Job Corps is a welcoming place for LGBT persons. • As we will explore in this presentation, a person’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity is just one factor that can make educational and professional advancement more challenging because of legal, social, and economic barriers.

LGBT Youth Can Face Significant Disadvantages in the Workforce Due to Pervasive Discrimination • Family conflict over a youth’s sexual orientation and gender identity is a significant factor that leads to homelessness for LGBT youth, or the need to enter the child welfare system. In a 2006 study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 50% of gay teens experienced a negative reaction from their parents when they came out. • The 2009 Family Acceptance Project also conducted a robust study of LGBT youth and their families. It found that there was a strong correlation between the physical and mental health outcomes of LGBT youth, and the level of family rejection they had experienced because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. • Another study completed in 2012 found that approximately 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT.

Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Face Heightened Discrimination in Society • In a recent study published by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, transgender respondents reported troubling rates of harassment (78%), physical assault (35%) and sexual violence (12%) in educational settings. • Harassment was so pervasive that it led almost one-sixth (15%) to leave school in K-12 settings or in higher education.

Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Face Heightened Discrimination in the Workplace • According to the robust 2013 study published by various national LGBT organizations, A Broken Bargain for Transgender Workers, “unemployment rates for transgender workers was twice the rate for the population as a whole (14% compared to 7%), with the rate for transgender people of color reaching as high as four times the national unemployment rate.” • Moreover, more than 44% of transgender persons responded that they were underemployed. This could mean that they were only able to find part-time or temporary work, or that they were overqualified for the positions they currently have.

Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Face Heightened Discrimination in the Workplace Continued • In addition, 90% of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment or discrimination on the job, or took actions to hide their identity in order to avoid mistreatment. • 47% said they had experienced an adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion because of being transgender or gender non-conforming. • 26% reported that they had lost a job because of their transgender or gender non-conforming identity, and 50% reported harassment based on their identity.

Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Face Heightened Discrimination in the Workplace Continued • A large majority of the respondents attempted to avoid discrimination by hiding their gender or gender transition (71%), or delaying their gender transition (57%). • The vast majority (78%) of those who did transition reported that they felt more comfortable at work, and that their job performance improved, despite high levels of mistreatment.

Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals Face Heightened Discrimination in the Workplace Continued • Transgender and gender non-conforming persons who were currently unemployed because of their gender identity experienced crippling negative outcomes such as: • Nearly double the rate of working in the underground economy • “Twice the homelessness, 85% more incarceration, and more negative health outcomes including • more than double the HIV infection rate • nearly double the rate of current drinking or drug misuse to cope with mistreatment, compared to those who were employed.”

Racism, Poverty, and Suicide • Anti-Transgender Bias compounded by racism led to devastating outcomes for transgender persons of color • Transgender persons are nearly four times more likely to have a household income of less than $10,000/year compared to the general population. • Tragically, 41% of the participants reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population • With suicide rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)

Work to be Done to Become a Job Corps Gender Ally

Gender Support: Simple Equations • Family supportBetter mental health outcomes for LGBT youth/young adults • Family rejectionPoorer mental health outcomes for LGBT youth/young adults • CAITLIN RYAN, FAMILY ACCEPTANCE PROJECT

Family Support Corollary • Non-family adult supportBetter mental health outcomes for LGBT youth/young adults • Non-family adult rejectionPoorer mental health outcomes for LGBT youth/young adults • Job Corps staff = non-family • So this would be you

Another Simple Equation • Good mental healthbetter job performance • Poor mental healthpoorer performance • Ergo: Supporting the mental health of Job Corps trainees builds “work resilience”

Gender Health • Good mental health outcomes for LGBT youth/young adults fall under the umbrella of gender health • What is gender health? • The opportunity to live in the gender that feels most real and/or comfortable • The ability to express gender with freedom from restriction, aspersion or rejection

First Step To Promoting Gender Health In Job Corps Trainees • Find the lyrics to “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” (South Pacific) • Sing the verse: • You've got to be taughtTo hate and fear,You've got to be taughtFrom year to year,It's got to be drummedIn your dear little earYou've got to be carefully taught.

Second Step • Unlearn whatever you were carefully taught that gets in the way of promoting gender health in the trainees • But how? • Next slide

Tackle Your Gender Ghosts • Gender ghosts are the things you were taught that come together in beliefs, attitudes, feelings, reactions that tell you: • Gender-nonconforming people are sick • We have to police gender if it doesn’t come in two boxes—male/female • Transgender males are not “real” males • Transgender women are not “real” females • Fill in the blank: _____________________________

Call On Your Gender Angels • Gender angels are the feelings and attitudes inside you, the lessons you learned, or the efforts you’ve made to recognize gender in all its variations as a healthy part of humanity • Gender angels allow you to promote gender health among LGBT trainees • Gender angels facilitate gender acceptance within the entire Job Corps environment

War Of The Worlds: Gender Angels Go Against Gender Ghosts • Gender angels and gender ghosts reside within us • Typically, we will each discover we have both gender angels and gender ghosts • Typically, gender angels and gender ghosts are in conflict with each other • Our task: to let the gender angels drown out the voices of the gender ghosts

Letting The Gender Angels Be The Victors • How? • By self-examination and self-reflection and feedback from those around you • Why should we engage in this battle? • Anything else will cause harm to gender-nonconforming, transgender youth/young adults, not to mention Job Corps, not to mention the entire society

Pay Attention To Gender Microaggressions As You Go • What are microaggressions? • Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults towards a marginalized group • Gender-nonconforming/transgender youth and young adults count as such a group • An accumulation of microagressions can add up to trauma, even more so when someone is from more than one marginalized group

Examples Of Gender Microaggressions • Refusal to use correct gender pronouns, even when a person tells you which one to use for them • Constantly “slipping,” forgetting to use the correct gender pronoun, even when you’ve been asked repeatedly to use that pronoun • Refusal to use a person’s preferred name • Asking someone what’s between their legs • Running out of the bathroom if you see a transgender trainee walking in • Standing by passively when someone is making fun of a trainee’s gender • Making jokes about transgender people

Arriving At Being a Gender Ally • While working to eliminate your gender ghosts, build a fire wall around them so they don’t get out and hurt LGBT trainees • Fashion yourself as a full-length mirror: • No one would want to look in the mirror and discover they were invisible • Best gift you can give a gender-nonconforming/ transgender trainee: actively reflect back to them an authentic and positive image of who they are—through your words, your actions, your feelings. • When it comes to gender, their gender is as real as yours and mine and as real as it gets

Best Practices I • Three principles to follow: • Treat a person fairly based on his or her self identity, regardless of surgery or legal documentation (i.e., driver’s license or social security card). • Understand and apply the concept of reasonable accommodation: • Ask yourself – is this a situation where the typical policies or procedures are resulting in a transgender person having to unfairly endure difficult or different conditions at work? • Biases of supervisors, coworkers, and colleagues are not a valid reason for discrimination. • Ask yourself – is this a situation where an entity is trying to accommodate the biases, or lack of comfort with transgender people?

Best Practices II: Dress & Uniform • Dress • Job Corps staff and supervisors should institute policies that enable its trainees to perform to the best of their ability while incorporating gender diversity and expression. • Uniform • Job Corps staff and supervisors should permit its transgender employees to dress in accordance with the gendered dress standard that corresponds to their gender identity or expression.

Best Practices III: Restrooms • Sometimes co-workers object to using a restroom that is also used by a transgender person. • Here is an excellent opportunity for public education in Job Corps training program through the facilities' management team. • If management declares and implements this policy, then the other employees and trainees will follow this strong example. • Everyone should be able to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Best Practices IV: Showers, Locker Rooms, and Common Areas • Reasonable accommodation is the most helpful principle to apply. • When concerns arise, the best solution is to provide accommodations for private showers and changing areas within locker rooms and other common areas. • These best practices are particularly important if the Job Corps trainees are living in community together.

Recommendations I: Build Partnerships with Local LGBT Groups • Centers should partner with local LGBT organizations to assist with outreach and non-discrimination training programs. Establishing partnerships between Job Corps centers and local LGBT advocacy groups will be critical in creating effective culturally competent training programs. • Local LGBT advocacy groups can provide an invaluable perspective needed to ensure that these training programs address the unique needs of that local community, tackling concerns that relate to a rural, urban, or mixed environment or population. • Thus whenever possible, local LGBT organizations should assist with data collection, safe space training, and programming.

Recommendations II: Ensuring Compliance with Non-Discrimination Policies • Share information about employment nondiscrimination with potential job-placement sites. • Collaborate with job-placement sites to ensure a welcoming, nondiscriminatory environment for all students, including LGBT students

Scenario • A transgender student recently arrived on your center. This is the first transgender person you have met. You find yourself constantly slipping with correct pronoun usage. While you don’t want to be judgmental, sometimes negative thoughts about this person’s gender identity creep into your mind. You truly want to help this student, but feel like you always say the wrong thing. • What steps can you take to become an ally?

Questions?

Improving the Experience of LGBT Trainees with a Focus on Gender Identity