Trans Employees Open Up About Workplace Issues

Accomplished opera singer Breanna Sinclaire, recently honored by Out magazine as one of the top 100 LGBT advocates of the year, still worries when she applies for a job or meets new co-workers.

"Look at these broad shoulders," Sinclaire, 27, who recently completed her master's degree on full scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, said in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. "When I meet someone new, are they going to think I look like a man?"

Last week, Sinclaire was a panelist at a forum on workplace issues surrounding gender transition. The November 18 forum was sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company with partners Transgender Law Center, the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative, and Out and Equal Workplace Advocates. The event, which was open to the public, was designed to help employers develop strategies to create a more inclusive workplace and to share ideas with individuals considering coming out at work.

In Sinclaire's presentation, she said the "simple task" of filling out an application can bring up "awkward issues" for people undergoing transition. Sinclaire said she would typically answer a job advertisement using the name Breanna, which she has used for the past seven years.

But when a job offer was imminent, and she had to fill out the formal application, she knew the employer could legally disqualify her for the job if she didn't provide her legal name.

"So at that point," she said, "I have to start explaining."

Sinclaire, who has applied to join the San Francisco Opera Chorus, has dealt with uncomfortable situations since moving to San Francisco in 2011. During a stint as a sales associate at an antique store, she said that the gay men who owned the store were "incredibly supportive in every way," but some customers didn't want to work with her.

Sinclaire said that she has also encountered hostility from a handful of women performers, "questioning whether or not I was a 'real woman.'"

Despite the progress in acceptance of transgender people, "we are all going to face people trying to 'dock our T,'" she said, referring to people taking issue with someone's gender identity.

"Yes," she said, "things are much better for me" recently. "But at my job as an employment services associate at [TEEI] I still hear a lot of really, really depressing stories" from transgender individuals facing discrimination or harassment.

Other panelists described their concerns about coming out to co-workers.

Paula diFalco, 60, a PG&E senior database administrator in San Ramon, had been known as Mike diFalco for 14 years at the company. But on October 22, after some encouraging conversations with PG&E employees who were part of the company's Pride Network, "I thought I was ready to be Paula" at work, she said.

"This was three years in coming," diFalco said, explaining that she'd been cross dressing in her personal life but hesitated to "take the step" of coming out to co-workers.

The response, she said, "was phenomenal." All of her co-workers were accepting and supportive, she said.

Since then, occasionally "people will forget and call me 'Mike' or refer to me as 'he' instead of 'she,'" diFalco said. "Hey, that's OK, I do the same thing. I was Mike for almost 60 years, so of course we're all going to forget."

While everyone's journey to decide whether to come out at work is different, diFalco said that like many others, she was "worried and totally unsure what I would face. Would I be ridiculed? Could I lose my job? How could I bring up the topic without revealing the very information I was trying to hide?"

DiFalco said her decision to "go ahead" came after she realized "how much happier" she was as a woman.

"As a man, I was grumpy all the time," she said. "I think the best way to describe me would've been 'curmudgeon.' Once I saw that my entire life could be better and happier for me - and for everyone I knew ... I realized I had to" become Paula at work.

DiFalco was also encouraged by the positive response from her health provider, who gave her the "green light" to begin the transition process under medical supervision.

"At my age," she said, "that was a real question in my mind."

Once she started, and she had joined the Pride Network employee resource group, diFalco said she accepted an invitation to join some co-workers in downtown San Francisco for an after-work get-together.

"I went home, changed into my Paula clothes, and showed up to the most positive reception I could've imagined. I will never forget that day ... how free I felt to be welcomed and accepted for the person who I was," she said.

Other Issues

Some different issues were brought up by panelist David Pati�o, a former Google employee now working at the Transgender Law Center. Pati�o, who describes themself as gender nonconforming, said that issues came up when they went from being a student at Stanford to an employee at Google.

"At school," they said, "I was pretty much on my own and I didn't have to explain anything to anyone," But when they applied for a job, "I realized that there would be some new issues."

It turned out, said Pati�o, that team members and management at Google "were amazing. It was just not an issue to anyone."

Still, when there were corporate events with a dress code, "I didn't know what was expected," they said. "Do I dress as a man? And, if so, can I also do my nails?"

Pati�o also asked co-workers to use the pronoun "they" when referring to them, rather than "he," or "she." People were accommodating, they explained; it was sometimes just a matter of reminding them.

In closing remarks, PG&E's Andrew Williams, an attorney who is an executive sponsor of the Pride Network, said he hoped the forum was successful in raising the awareness about the experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming employees and to offer resources for support in developing policies.

"As employers," he said, they are at various stages and levels of creating policies that offer "a more inclusive environment."

"We recognize we have a lot to learn and plenty of work to do," he said.

Alissa Nelson, a program manager in behavior health at Blue Shield of California, said she found the forum "extremely useful" for her company as providers of health services.

"We wanted to hear" from people transitioning what they needed and expected from their employers, she said.