Report shows steep drop in youth employment

The Northeast Ohio Transgender Job Fair will be held in Cleveland this weekend. Organizers say the event is needed because the unemployment rate for transgender people is double the overall rate.

(Associated Press file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ask most people about the job search process, and they will often come up with less than glowing descriptions: It's frustrating. It's demoralizing. It's riddled with dashed hopes.

Transgender jobseekers experience all of these things, along with the fear that employers will reject them solely for being trans.

At the Northeast Ohio Transgender Job Fair this weekend, jobseekers may still be anxious about the job search, but they won't have to worry about prospective employers rejecting them because they are transgender.

"All the companies recruiting are aware of the trans community," said Rashida Davison, outreach and engagement coordinator for TransOhio, the Columbus-based outreach, support and advocacy organization. "They have knowledge about the community and what they face in employment.

"In Ohio, there is not statewide protection for employment, housing and public accommodations - which include malls and public transportation - when it comes to the LGBT community; and the trans community is really feeling the brunt of all of this," Davison said. "We are talking about losing jobs, not being promoted and not being hired."

The event will be from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in Cleveland. Saturday's itinerary includes workshops on resume building, interviewing skills and wearing appropriate attire for job interviews and in the workplace. The job fair will be held Sunday, as well as onsite interviews. Companies recruiting include the FBI, Giant Eagle, KeyBank, Marriott, the MetroHealth System and NASA Glenn Research Center.

TransOhio only wants the exact location of the job fair to appear in publications or websites specifically targeting the trans community, because of safety concerns regarding transgender people, Davison said. Those interested in finding out more about the job fair may send an email to jobfair@transohio.org.

Davison said some in the trans community received threats to their safety after Cleveland City Council had recently begun discussing a proposal to update anti-discrimination laws to include transgender people. At issue, is an ordinance that would allow transgender people to choose restrooms, showers and locker rooms based on the gender by which they identify themselves, instead of the sex they were born. (The trans community prefers "sex assigned at birth.") Opponents of the proposal say pedophiles, and others with criminal intent, would use such a law as cover to gain access to victims. Other jurisdictions, that have passed such legislation, have rarely reported this happening.

Many are aware of the violence that has been directed toward the transgender community, but few, perhaps, are aware of the struggles they have in landing jobs or gaining workplace acceptance.

For example, the trans community has a national unemployment rate twice the overall jobless rate, according to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which was released a few years ago. The unemployment rate for transgender people of color was four times the national rate, the survey found. Since the Labor Department doesn't compile employment data specifically on the transgender community, the survey probably offers the best employment picture for them.

The survey also gives statistics about joblessness in Ohio's trans community. They were no less encouraging, and include that:

81 percent reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job because they were transgender

28 percent reported losing a job

27 percent said they were denied a promotion

46 percent said they were not hired

Because both landing a job and finding a workplace where they are accepted prove difficult for many transgender people, Davison said it is important to have a transgender job fair to increase the chances of these jobseekers securing employment.

TransOhio has working groups in six cities in the state in which its members identify issues that are prevalent to the trans community in their areas.

"Employment was a really big issue for people in Cleveland, and they came up with the idea for a job fair that would be open and welcoming, and where employers would be actively recruiting," Davison said of the working group.

A transgender jobseeker faces issues other jobseekers do not face, Davison said. For example, should such applicants scrub their resumes and employment applications to any references - such as volunteer activities - that may reveal them as transgender? If they don't, employers may opt not to consider them, Davison said. Waiting until the interview process to reveal oneself as transgender can also pose problems.

"They say they make it through the interview process, and then suddenly they don't have the job," Davison said, recounting the experiences told to him by transgender jobseekers. "Even if the interview went well, they are not called back for that job. Some people say this keeps happening over and over again."

Even if job candidates try not to reveal they are transgender in hopes of increasing their chances of getting hired, such attempts are often derailed. Transgender jobseekers have usually lived at least some of their adult lives being identified by the sex with which they were born. This means that background checks, for example, will reveal that they had once identified themselves by a different gender.

Then there is the issue of an employer checking references.

"References may be difficult to manage, especially if someone worked for an employer pre-transition," Davison said. "How do you manage references without having to come out?"

Even if a person is able to successfully negotiate the job search process, and get hired, the workplace may be uninviting. Managers or co-workers may not respect these employees' wishes to be referred to by the gender by which they choose to identify, or not identify. Some transgender people, such as Davison, choose not to identify with either gender.

Intolerance of transgender employees persists, Davison said. For example, some workplaces don't cope well when an employee is hired presenting as one gender, before choosing to be identified by another. Other workplaces refuse to accept it when managers and co-workers find out transgender employees are presenting as one gender at work, but identifying as another in their personal lives.

"All of a sudden these employees didn't get that raise or they didn't get that promotion that they were certainly qualified for or people begin harassing them on the job," Davison said.