Kristy Ramirez has faced employment discrimination and harassment, and she’s just trying to work. Ramirez was penniless and living on the street, but she found a place to work only after she agreed to use the men’s bathroom. ​

“I needed the job, so I agreed,” Kristy said. “I told myself, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll just go when there’s no one there.” But she was sexually assaulted by a man in the bathroom, and was only then allowed to use the women’s room. But then a female customer had a problem. “She looked me up and down and said, ‘what are you doing here?’” Kristy said. “She said, ‘why do they allow you to use the women’s bathroom?”

And Kristy was fired. ​

“He knew it was hard for me to find a job,” she said tearing up. “I started thinking ‘Why did I go to the bathroom?’ I regretted going to the bathroom. I regretted being the way I am. I started thinking about changing myself. I don’t know. In that moment, I wanted to die.”

​This is hardly uncommon for those in the transgender community. Forty-seven percent of transmen and women are fired, not hired, or denied promotions with 90% saying they have been harassed at work.

It’s not all a sad story, though, find out where this beautiful young woman found a job, family, and community.