Transgender people are employed in every industry and profession across the country and deserve a safe and inclusive workplace. The following tips can help you keep a welcoming workplace environment for all employees.
Recognize the difference between your personal values and the community values of your workplace. Some people have political, cultural and religious objections to someone being transgender. Being polite and respectful to a trans co-worker does not require abandoning these beliefs. Instead, being polite simply requires that these beliefs are not acted upon in the workplace. Transgender and non-transgender people simply want to be treated respectfully; the best way to do that is to separate personal values from workplace conduct.
Respect your co-workers’ confidentiality and privacy. Many non-transgender people have a lot of questions about their trans co-workers’ gender transition. However, asking a co-worker questions about their personal medical history is inappropriate. Certainly, friends talk about things that co-workers don’t, and some co-workers will feel comfortable enough with one another to discuss private issues. However, it would be best if you did not assume that your trans co-worker will want to discuss their private healthcare matters with you. Instead, allow your co-worker to initiate any conversation about their transition.
Help co-workers who are having trouble with another employee’s transition. Sometimes, one of your non-transgender co-workers may have difficulty showing respect to their trans co-worker. The person may mistakenly use the transgender co-worker’s old name out of habit and may need to be gently reminded about the new name or pronoun. Other times, the person may have trouble separating their personal values from the community values of the workplace. In those instances, it is helpful if you talk to them about how their behavior affects not only your trans co-worker but you as well. This will help them understand that their actions have more significant consequences than they may know.
Don’t assume that your transgender co-workers know everything about all transgender issues. While some trans co-workers may be interested in discussing transgender-related matters, others may not. It might make sense to you to discuss a news story or movie about a transgender topic with your co-worker. The same might be true if you have a question about transgender civil rights or medical topics. Before doing so, however, make sure that your co-worker really wants to discuss these things. You may find that you have other shared interests they’d much rather discuss. Just because someone is transgender does not mean that they wish to discuss every transgender-related topic that may arise.
