Good and Mixed Tidings
First, Holly at Feministe has posted a Trans 101 thread for questions and answers about trans people. Most of the discussion is about transsexualism, but there’s good stuff to be found there. I’ve also added a permanent link to my blogroll. If anyone has other good Trans 101 links, I’d be happy to add those, although I will also be looking for them myself.
The DHS rules would have required employers to either fire employees or face stiff penalties when employee records do not match information in the Social Security Administration (SSA) database, such as name, Social Security number, or gender. Transgender employees who are listed as one gender in SSA records, but who live and work in another gender, would have been one of the groups at greater risk of losing their jobs as a result of the DHS enforcement procedures.
Sadly, Social Security is still required to notify employers of no matches, meaning that trans people who have not had the proper surgery can and will be outed within two months of starting a new job. Also, DHS is planning to introduce new enforcement procedures.
November 29, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Well, that sucks. There is nothing more dangerous than beaurocracy (sic) run amok and this whole “There is terror under the beds, there is terror in the banana, all must turn their lives over to us to help us stop this war on terror!” - I mean, since there are proven negative occurances which happen for people in a medical situation, shouldn’t there be, by logic, protections to ensure the information isn’t used to hurt people. I think, for example, if every person who had recieved therapy or counselling in life had thier employeer notified after two months about that (and we all know those people who are like “People who get therapy are either going to go nuts and kill us all or make some excuse and claim they have some traumatic stress from this job”) - I think there would be an outcry and safeguards, that such in not in place here only shows an institional prejudice (though considering Bush as governor of Texas spent his time trying to get all marriages made by transitioned transsexuals absolved, I am thinking I have a hint where this bias may be breeding)
November 29, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Yes, and the bureaucracy in America is quite dangerous to trans people. In 2009, we’re getting the “Real ID” act, which will require standardized ID cards, and will make it impossible for trans people who haven’t had surgery to have the proper sex marker on their ID cards.
So it’ll become a legal requirement for pre/non-op trans people to out themselves every time they show their driver’s license.
This and the no match thing are a huge invasion of privacy, especially given that it’s pretty easy to get fired for being trans on the job.