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Written Statement of

The Transgender Law Center

To the

Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions

Committee on Education and Labor

United States House of Representatives

“An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace”

This historic hearing took place on Thursday, June 26, 2008.

Rayburn House Office Building

June 26, 2008

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a California state-wide, non-profit civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. Created in response to the overwhelming discrimination that transgender people and our families face in nearly every institution in California, we utilize direct legal services, education, community organizing, and policy and media advocacy to overcome this discrimination and help the state become one where every person’s gender identity is respected and supported. TLC is honored to submit this statement regarding pervasive discrimination against transgender Americans in the workplace, and we thank you for your consideration of this important issue.

Our statement draws on the daily contact we have with transgender community members, as well as our advocacy work and research. Every year we assist nearly 1,000 transgender individuals with legal issues. Approximately 10% of our clients contact us regarding discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Countless others contact us with issues that directly affect their ability to secure and maintain employment, such as access to health care, identity documents, and housing.

While limited research exists on transgender people in the workplace, all available studies and anecdotal evidence point to extremely disproportionate unemployment and underemployment among transgender people. This bleak employment picture is largely a consequence of the discrimination that too many transgender people experience in employment, education, and other areas that affect transgender people’s ability to secure and maintain employment.

The attached “Good Jobs NOW!†report, supported by the Women’s Foundation of California  and conducted by TLC and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, provides sorely needed data on the  economic reality  experienced by transgender people and their families. In early 2006, 194 selfidentified  transgender people living, working, or looking for work in San Francisco were surveyed. The outcomes are stark.
Among “Good Jobs NOW!†respondents, nearly 60% earned under $15,300 annually and only 8% earned over $45,900. Forty percent did not have a bank account of any kind. Only 25% were working full-time, with 16% working part-time, and nearly 9% reporting no source of income.  Over 57% percent reported experiencing employment discrimination, but as few as 12% took any kind of action and only 3% filed an administrative or civil complaint.  These findings are made even more compelling by the fact that the survey was conducted exclusively in San Francisco. Both San Francisco and California have strong employment nondiscrimination
laws and regulations that support safer and more effective integration of transgender people into the workplace. However, a lack of Federal protections has a tremendous effect on the transgender community nation-wide. Every week transgender people living in states without protective legislation call TLC. These hard working Americans have little to no recourse in their home states.
Allowing employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promotions, and discipline based on a worker’s identity goes against America’s core value of equal opportunity. All too often, we see transgender Americans forced out of successful careers when they express their gender identity.   Many transgender people fear and experience discrimination and therefore must either hide who they are, to the detriment of their health; leave jobs they love in order to transition without risking termination; or face rampant harassment and discrimination in their current workplace.  Federal protection from discrimination and harassment based on gender identity would liberate the transgender community from this stark reality. Such legislation would allow transgender Americans to continue contributing to our country’s workforce without fear of being terminated  simply because of who we are.   We urge the Subcommittee to recognize this issue of basic fairness. Transgender Americans deserve to be ourselves in a workplace where we are judged exclusively on our ability to do our jobs. Work is an integral part of our lives, of who we are, just like our gender. No American should have to choose between their gender, and making a living.

Both Rep. Frank and Rep. Baldwin were key organizers of the hearing.

8 Min. Hearing testimony …

The general public has no concept of the personal toll it takes on families and friends of people with gender identity issues.  When there is something very wrong with how you feel and how you are perceived, there is no word to describe the pain.  It is an emotional, gut and heart pain that grinds in the background of every day life.  Being treated like a side show, when every cell starves for normal blending into a normal social context, must be excruciating.  Some don’t survive.  Those who survive their own torment, may fall victim to hate crimes.  The education system has done a poor job of explaining different conditions humans find themselves in, because they are born that way.  Many poorly educated people see human differences as a free ticket to abuse. Some religious dogma fails to remind that “all God’s creatures” deserve respect.

If religion becomes complicit in destructive behavior toward other humans, it’s representatives must be held accountable.  The excuse that “God hates” this person or that person, is a criminal interpretation, it should be treated as such.

God cannot hate it’s creations,

God’s spokespersons interject their personal hatreds into their fiery rhetoric.  This is sad because God has no spokespersons, all that’s left are interpreters.  God speaks for God.  The Judeo, Christian, Muslim family had originators that claimed to be God’s spokespersons and started great religious movements.  Those spokespersons left their words behind to be treated as law.  What happened next was morphing and division.  Everything humans do is made possible by God.  Discriminating is not understanding, fully, what God really had in mind.   Mistreatment and crimes against others are not acceptable, whatever religion one claims to represent.

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Filed under: Labor Laws, civil liberties, civil rights, cross dresser, discrimination, transgender

You have to wonder if Bush, Chertoff and Rice really understand which homeland they are suppose to secure. Obviously, putting the responsibility of digitally fingerprinting all exiting foreign passengers falls on the airline and shipping industry; who will then hire contractors to to do the U.S. Government’s job? The Bush administration has hit the pinnacle of security chaos. We can rest easy now, knowing that we have outsourced the outsource.

In typical Bush administration fashion, the US-Visit Program is an ongoing cluster f*** which Bush wants in place by August 2009. The 34 countries involved are urging Bush to stop the program, stating “the job of boarder and port security should not be the responsibility or cost of the airline and shipping industry.” That’s crazy talk. Why the heck would Bush expect the U.S. Government to fund a U.S. security program for civilians, and American companies responsible for protecting the homeland?

According to the Washington Post

Airlines said the change would cost the industry $12.3 billion over 10 years, not $3.5 billion as the Department of Homeland Security estimated in unveiling the proposal in April. Representatives of the nations affected said it is the duty of the U.S. government, not private companies, to enforce immigration and border security laws, and they raised privacy concerns about companies collecting fingerprints.

“This proposal to outsource the core government function of border control at a time that airlines around the world are fighting for their economic survival is both unwarranted and counterproductive,”

Clive Wright, a senior British Embassy official in Washington, wrote on behalf of 34 governments, saying they “are seriously concerned” about the new fingerprint mandate for private companies. He argued that the requirements pose privacy, liability and business risks to airlines far more costly and difficult than any issues they now face in handling immigration issues.

In a message Wednesday to the State Department, the German Embassy said that the collection of fingerprints by private companies should “only be the last resort” and that DHS should maintain full custody over sensitive personal data.

Not to mention the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has written several reports on the Department of Homeland Securities (DHS) US-Visit program. The two most recent reports, December 2006 and February 2008, the GAO’s reported the DHS program “Faces Strategic, Operational, and Technological Challenges at Land Ports of Entry.”

December 2006 report:

February 2008 report:

So there you have it. Chertoff and Rice have a brilliant plan to appease the GAO, put the burden of collecting digital fingerprints and the cost of protecting U.S. boarders on foreign business.

Further reading and resources:
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Department of Homeland Security: US-VISIT

3 Comments »
Filed under: Bush, Chertoff, GAO, Homeland Security, Outsource, Politics, Rice

Medicare: Thousands of Medicare Providers Abuse the Federal Tax System

F.D.A. Issues Strictest Warning on Diabetes Drugs

As America ages, the GREED factor related to Health Care grows exponentially. Services provided are watered down and cost is inflated to squeeze every penny out of the US Taxpayer. Health Care is no longer the realm of humanitarian motives. Health Care is BIG BUSINESS with roots in Pharmaceuticals and Hospital Corporations. The argument for and against the medical industry under government control has its benefits and drawbacks. The most glaring Benefit is oversight (Drawback: if America can ever get that concept to work), for service the medical system provides. This is not the “Socialized Medicine” that corrupt Medical Businesses would like you to believe. This is a cap on the outrageous price fixing they have enjoyed for too long. There are too many examples to cite for price fixing … just ask yourself why patients have traveled to other countries to get affordable treatment. The Medical Industry has lost its way. The US Government has victimized taxpayers by lining their pockets with kickbacks from their “Golden Goose”. The US Taxpayer has funded too much fraud and waste in general. But, when it comes to basic health care, the US Taxpayer is out of luck. Corrupt business has marketed the fear of “Socialized Medicine” so well, that self-serving semantics have re-defined the whole concept of medical oversight.

Perverse Corruption as Doctors are Paid to Sell Drugs

FDA Collaboration with Big Pharma Raises Eyebrows

The Andrew von Eschenbach FDA era is upon us. The Avandia scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Is anyone ready? The words “illicit financial collusion†have been replaced by the politically correct term, “collaboration.†On May 30, in defense of his cozy relationship with Big Pharma and Big Biotech von Eschenbach told reporters, “This is a collaboration, but it’s not just a collaboration with drug companies, it’s a collaboration with academia and with other agencies.†And he forgot to include that it is also a collaboration with various Senators, such as Senator Bennett (R-UT) and Senator Hatch (R-UT), as can be seen by the highly lucrative Critical Path Initiative program for cardiovascular disease research at the University of Utah.,

Avandia Scandal: Leading Diabetes Doc Warned FDA About Risks In 2000

For now, Avandia is the new Vioxx.

The New York Times poked around the FDA web site and unearthed a letter written in 2000 by John Buse, chief of endocrinology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who is about to become the president of the American Diabetes Association.

He cited “a worrisome trend in cardiovascular deaths and severe adverse events†among patients using the drug. He also accused Glaxo of “pervasive and systemic†attempts to minimize Avandia’s risks and overstate its benefits.

What else was found? A warning letter issued by the FDA to Glaxo in 2001, chastising the drugmaker for distributing materials at an endocrinolgoy convention that didn’t carry warnings on the Avandia label, which were ordred by the FDA to highlight heart and liver risks.

Buse wrote his letter in response to an FDA citizen’s petition filed by Public Citizen’s Sid Wolfe, who asked the agency to place warning labels on Rezulin, Avandia and Actos.

Referring to Avandia by its generic name, rosiglitazone, and to Rezulin as troglitazone, Dr. Buse wrote in the letter, “I do not believe that rosiglitazone will be proven safer than troglitazone in clinical use under current labeling of the two products.†He added: “In fact, rosiglitazone may be associated with less beneficial cardiac effects or even adverse cardiac outcomes.

Last Year: U.S SENATORS ALLEGE FDA COMPLICITY OVER AVANDIA SCANDAL.

Nationwide, there are about 2500 pharmaceutical facilities.

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Filed under: Accountability, Big Pharma, Corporate Corruption, FDA, Health Care, Health Care Reform, Hypocracy, National, Oversight, Politics, Public Health, Scandal, Tim Russert, Whistleblower, abuse, cover up, manufacturers, marketing, pharmaceuticals, profiteers

Libertarian Candidate Barr Blasts McCain

Says His Candidacy Will Benefit From GOP Defectors

By Eric Pianin
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, offered a scathing critique of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today and predicted he would garner substantial conservative Republican support in a handful of battleground states critical to McCain in his campaign against Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).

Barr, a one-time conservative Republican House member from Georgia who broke with the Bush administration and many of his former congressional colleagues, blasted McCain for his support of the war in Iraq, his energy policies and his stand on reducing government spending.

“With regard to domestic policy, Sen. McCain really has put forward nothing that would indicate he believes in dramatically shrinking the size and cost of the government,” Barr said during an interview on washingtonpost.com’s “PostTalk” program. “He does talk a great game about doing away with earmarks, but that really does not get near to the heart of the matter of the massive federal spending, the massive federal debt and the deficits we’re running.”

Barr is hoping to become the beneficiary of much of the support and some of the campaign funds generated by Libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) during his surprisingly vigorous bid this year for the Republican presidential nomination. Barr said “we really do” see an opportunity to match or exceed Paul’s performance in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia, where Paul picked up between eight percent and 15 percent of the Republican primary vote.

No Libertarian Party candidate has ever won more than a million votes nationwide in a presidential general election, but Barr believes he could improve on that with strong showings in the West, Southwest, and a handful of southern and Northeastern states.

“We see this (potential) not just in Ron Paul’s very significant vote-getting capability in those states and those areas, but also in Sen. (Hillary) Clinton’s ability to dramatically take votes against Senator Obama in the Democrat primaries,” he said. “These are states with a lot of Second Amendment enthusiasts and blue-collar Democrats who are much more likely to adopt a Bob Barr message of strong support for civil liberties, smaller government and so forth.”

Barr, 59, for years was a conservative Republican foot soldier in the House who strongly supported the war in Iraq, was a booster of the Patriot Act that strengthened the government’s domestic surveillance powers, backed measures to ban gay marriage and voted to block the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

But since renouncing the GOP and embracing the anti-government tenets of the Libertarian party a couple years ago, Barr has flip-flopped repeatedly and now strongly opposes the war, condemns the Patriot Act as a violation of civil liberties, criticizes efforts to restrict gay rights, and even favors the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes.

Barr said that “the tremendous growth” of federal government powers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “has so dramatically shrunk the sphere of personal liberty in this country … that it has really caused myself and many other Americans … to take a much harder look at government power than we did in the past.”

Whats wrong with ‘Flip Flop’? When you learn anything, your views change. Your attitude changes. Your priorities change. Thats how human intelligence evolves. I admire anyone with the guts to change. Bob Barr was a Republican Soldier who touted the party line for years. After the party was hijacked by radicals, Bob had an epiphany. This is wrong! This is not what I stand for! He changed. Now, he offers the alternative to radical republican rhetoric. People are more important than “the company line”. I view this as the same kind of revolution as early Labor Movement in the USA. I also view this as the US Christian Born Again movement. When change is necessary to survive, it must happen.

Mr. Barr’s dissatisfaction with his former party mirrored the sentiments of the 200 attendees – many disaffected Republicans themselves – who came to hear him speak about limiting government spending and regulation, protecting civil liberties and pulling U.S. troops out of foreign countries. - Mr. Barr is better known than most previous Libertarian candidates, and some Republicans fear he will steal votes from John McCain, as Green Party candidate Ralph Nader did to Al Gore in 2000.

Bob Barr and the Libertarians are a healthier alternative to the polluted Republican Party. Those angry Clintonistas who tout they would rather vote for McCain, are self destructing. I would have more respect if they were more thoughtful about their decision. Their ‘Flip Flop’ demonstrates that they had NO understanding of the Democratic process. They would rather become polluted, knee jerk Republicans than be Democrats! This makes me wonder if they were ever Democrats at all. Jumping to the Dark Side, instead of the Gray Side, tells me that the Clinton agenda had roots in radical Conservatism, after all. Go figure …

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Filed under: Libertarian Party, Presidential Candidates, candidates

It’s Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s weekly blog round-up. The round-up is compiled based on submissions made by member blogs. This week’s compiler is Vince from Capitol Annex.

CoulldBeTrue hears Rick Perry’s rally call against Mexican drug cartels hooking up with local gangs and fears coded words meaning ‘Lets profile Latinos’ yee haw.

Off the Kuff spent his time in Austin interviewing candidates for office. The first group of interviewees published are State Rep. Dan Barrett, HD97; Wendy Davis, SD10; Robert Miklos, HD101; and Chris Turner, HD96.

refinish69 of Doing My Part For The Left gives a review of his experience herding cats at the Texas Democratic Convemtion and a podcast version as well.

The Texas Cloverleaf wonders why we are getting yet another TX Secretary of State, as Phil Wilson is set to resign after only one year on the job.

PDiddie had some scenes from the Texas GOP convention posted at Brains and Eggs .

With four electric companies folding up shop over the last several weeks, it is going to be a difficult summer for Texas consumers. The failures underscore just how screwed up the retail utility business is in Texas. One commentator has called it a game of Russian Roulette, and so it is….

In a much-anticipated mega-post on transportation issues, McBlogger tells us that lawmakers are “doing it wrong” when it comes to transportation funding.

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Filed under: Texas, Texas Blogs, Texas Politics, Texas Progressive Alliance