I signed up to lead the LGBT group at work.

[Maxi]

My employment is implementing a program to make people feel more comfortable with who they are at work. They feel it could be more productive.

They put up a sheet to signup if you are interested.

Now my boss is one who tripped out when one of our male customers was wearing a bra. He was totally blown away by this.

Now rumors circulated around the company about 15 years ago about me being kinky.
I was married to a bisexual woman and became bi myself as we did some swinging. This led to my crossdressing.

I am one of his top producing employees, and when I told him I signed up, his comment was "Gees". I am perceived as a very masculine male, and built like a lumber jack.
This will be interesting to find out how this progresses in the future. I have no desire to dress at work, as I am all business, and the public may have different ideas. It could impact my sales. My customers think I am the greatest vendor they have ever had, as I do the whole job.

Are you comfortable enough with your crossdressing to lead a group at work?
This could be interesting.

[Beverley Sims]

I may not come out completely but I would provide counseling and co ordination to the best of my insight.

[joank]

As an assistant principal I allowed and brefly attended a LBGT Club to meet (unoffically) on campus at noon hour. No one said a thing. Later one of the graduates came back for a visit and when I met him in the outer office I asked about college and his life. He later said to another student that I treated him like a 'real person'.

[Mollyanne]

as an assistant principal i allowed and brefly attended a lbgt club to meet (unoffically) on campus at noon hour. No one said a thing. Later one of the graduates came back for a visit and when i met him in the outer office i asked about college and his life. He later said to another student that i treated him like a 'real person'.

why would you treat him differently????? He is a real person!!!!!!!

Molly

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Maxi, Pleasd do keep us advised on this.

[Madam Rose]

Bravo I hope all goes well and I hope all jobs will do this. We need to get rid of the hate.

[lexie89]

that sounds great and wishing you good luck and getting the programmed people out of the system and to think on there own

[ElleduSud]

Way to step up! That's awesome, I hope it works out well for you and your co-workers.

[joank]

Mollyanne,
My point exactly.

[Lainie]

Brava for you! Wouldn't have the courage myself. Sounds like your boss is not going to be comfortable with the company initiative. Any other members in the group?

[Kate Simmons]

I would if I were still working Hon. I've gone beyond the "caring about what they think" stage.Doing something value added is what it's all about. I think you will do fine my friend, especially since you are dedicated to your work.:battingeyelashes::)

[lingerieLiz]

While I was doing some work for a major company I was asked to attend their diversity meetings. With my billing rate I was suprised, but found it interesting. I met two or three of the leaders because of work. Always wondered if I'd come in dressed what would have happened. I will say the company was very insistant about diversity.

[Maxi]

I just came home from a long meeting. Everybody seemed to be more social with me. I am still a part of the team. Nobody made any reference to me signing up. I'm sure they all know. Maybe they realize there is more to me than just serious business, or is there maybe a curiosity about why I signed up?

[flatlander_48]

I’ll share a few things about my experience with diversity groups and hopefully there may be some things that you find useful. However, some background might help, but it will be a bit long.

I’ve been with my current employer for 20 years, as of last month. For most of that time I have been involved in various diversity groups or affinity groups or employee resource groups or whatever you prefer to call them. I have even been president of one group for 3 years at the beginning of the previous decade. Around that time I became aware of an LGBT group that had formed within the company. It surprised me a bit as, for all our sometimes very frank discussions of race, gender, nationality, etc., little time was spent on LGBT issues. By the time that I heard about it, the group had been in existence for at least a year, maybe two. It was a secret that was well kept. Eventually when they felt they were ready, a public announcement was made and that was how I found out. All this was a great departure from my previous employer, also of 20 years. With them there was never any mention of diversity issues, let alone discussion or the formation of groups.

The story of how I came to join the LGBT group back in October-November of 2003 is a subject for another time. Unfortunately I left the country in mid-January to begin a long term assignment in Taiwan and spent 6 of the next 8 ½ years there. In that time I spent 2 stints back in the US and I was able to re-engage with the group. Being away so much has limited my participation, but the efforts of the group are largely directed at getting the message out within the company about the LGBT Community, what the specific issues are and possible solutions and contributing towards making an inclusive workplace. Many of the issues of the LBGT Community are unique and foreign to the larger community. In Taiwan I supervised machinery installations. We were often in conflict with construction personnel or people doing other installations. My thought process was always if I explained my situation thoroughly enough and why it was important, people would certainly support me. Can’t say that it is foolproof, but it definitely works. So, if we communicate our issues and why it’s important, people will be more inclined to support us.

Several years ago, we encouraged the corporation to participate in the Corporate Equality Index survey done by the Human Right Campaign. My company puts a lot of effort into maintaining a good reputation and attempting to be a place where people want to work. The CEI is a great yardstick for checking how your organization is progressing and how it compares to others. Basically the CEI focuses on issues that are important to the LGBT Community. Details are on the HRC website. Anyway, my guess is that the CEI seems to act like additional leverage as I think organizations, like people, don’t like to be shown up compared to other organizations. It’s one thing to want to do the right thing, but it’s that much easier getting support when you know what others are doing. The result is that we have consistently been in the 90%-100% range. Also, in that context, it should come as no surprise that Chick-Fil-A scored 0%.

As a way of raising awareness, we have set up various events during the year; for the last few years a major internal event and a major external event. In internal event is for our employees and can involve a presentation by an outside leader, facilitated discussions and small group meetings. We’ve had Keith Boykin spend a day with us as well as two people from IGLHRC, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. The external event is more of an entertainment event. It started out as the showing of a gay-themed film or documentary followed by a panel discussion with the creator of the film and LGBT Community organization leaders. In more recent times it became a real entertainment event with stand-up by Suzanne Westenhoefer. We’ve also had Maggie Stumpp come to talk about transgender and transitioning issues, Joan Darrah and her partner Lynn Kennedy came to talk about DADT and LGBT issues in general and Robin Ochs came to talk about bisexuality issues.

One of the things about the group that has impressed me is the strength of the allies. I continue to be amazed by them. Our CTO has been our sponsor for several years and he retired this past Spring. He took it upon himself to find his replacement. As a group, we had a farewell gathering for him. In turn, each of us took a moment to say Thank You and perhaps a personal thought. Anyway, he and I are roughly contemporaries (he’s about 5 years older I think). What I said was that what happens in the LGBT Community is not unlike what happened during the Civil Rights Movement. White allies played a significant role in the progress that was made in the Movement, by unfortunately many made great sacrifices for that progress. And, while all of us deeply appreciated his support, advice and counsel, I trust that it did not come at too high a price. But, beyond our former CTO, we have some really fierce allies. They all have different reasons for their involvement, but they all come with good purpose.

For me personally, I never gave much thought about coming out as a bisexual. Without any input from me, folks just assumed I came as an ally. After all, I’m on my second marriage and I have two grown children. It wasn’t until I was talking to Lynn Kennedy a couple of years ago that I realized that I should have said something. She spoke to me as though from a distance; a distance that might have been reserved for allies but not for Tribe. When Robin Ochs came later in the year to talk about bisexuals and what makes us different, the timing had come. However, I don’t think that I will come out as a crossdresser. That’s a much harder thing for folks to understand and I would prefer not to have people ask questions for which I have no answer.

I am a mechanical engineer and I work in a corporate engineering group. Going back to the mid-90’s, I was one of the founding members of a diversity group for black engineers and technicians. I was president of the group for 3 years spanning Y2K and into the dot.com bubble era. I think we did a lot of good during that time, but the one thing that I will always remember is standing in front of the group before each meeting and taking a moment to look at all the faces and be energized by the expectations, the warmth and the intelligence before me. It was a part of the meeting that I always looked forward to and I hope that it will be for you.

So, Good Luck and let us know how you're doing!

[amielts]

Good on you for signing up to a worthy cause!