Dive Brief:
- As more companies openly work to accommodate their transgender employees, more employers may be asking how to best handle transgender issues, such as transitioning while working. Now, organizations are emerging that seek to answer employers' questions and help them stay in line with anti-discrimination law.
- Carolyn Weiss, a 32-year employee of the City of Los Angeles who transitioned seven years ago at the age of 55, recently launched one such company, Transgender Business Services. The company seeks to help businesses of all sizes keep compliant with anti-discrimination laws as they concern transgender employees.
- The EEOC has recently made their stance clear on what they expect concerning transgender and gender identity issues in the workplace, and employers need to ensure their policy is up-to-date, law experts say.
Dive Insight:
Weiss's business is centered in California, which has laws that make it illegal to discriminate against transgender employees. But many employment laws first enacted in California make their way across the U.S., and many states and cities have been considering or implementing LGBT protection laws of their own.
The current California law prevents an employer from denying employment to someone on the basis of their gender identity or firing, harassing or "inappropriately disciplining" an employee for being transgender.
Weiss's company offers services such as training for managers, compliant company policy guides, plan development for transitioning employees and one-on-on counseling to guide managers and affected employees through the transition process.
