Paula DAngelo
12-09-2015, 08:28 AM
As of today I'm living as myself (Paula) full time.
With a company wide email that went out last night, the last place where I was hiding my true self is gone. To me this is a miracle since at one time I thought it would require a job change before I would be able to live fully as myself, but I was wrong.
A few months ago, the company I work for posted their discrimination/harassment policy again due to some issues that had occurred. At that time there was nothing in it dealing with gender issues in any form. At this point I decided it was time to question the policy and see where the company stood on gender issues. After some back and forth conversations the discrimination/harassment policy was updated. It now includes protection for gender, gender identity, and gender expression. They also started doing additional training on discrimination/harassment issues, of which about 1/3 of the training revolves around gender issues.
After going thru all this during the last few months I felt that it would be possible to continue my employment with this company and live as myself full time. So after some additional conversations with the HR people (who happen to also own the company) it was decided that as of the email last night I would be presenting as my true self and that it was backed by the company. :D
Now for the second half of the title of this post - 3 little words.
Shortly after the email went out I got a text message from one of the other employees saying they just got the email and were happy for me, followed by 3 little words that still bring tears to my eyes when I think about them, and they were "You go girl"
With a company wide email that went out last night, the last place where I was hiding my true self is gone. To me this is a miracle since at one time I thought it would require a job change before I would be able to live fully as myself, but I was wrong.
A few months ago, the company I work for posted their discrimination/harassment policy again due to some issues that had occurred. At that time there was nothing in it dealing with gender issues in any form. At this point I decided it was time to question the policy and see where the company stood on gender issues. After some back and forth conversations the discrimination/harassment policy was updated. It now includes protection for gender, gender identity, and gender expression. They also started doing additional training on discrimination/harassment issues, of which about 1/3 of the training revolves around gender issues.
After going thru all this during the last few months I felt that it would be possible to continue my employment with this company and live as myself full time. So after some additional conversations with the HR people (who happen to also own the company) it was decided that as of the email last night I would be presenting as my true self and that it was backed by the company. :D
Now for the second half of the title of this post - 3 little words.
Shortly after the email went out I got a text message from one of the other employees saying they just got the email and were happy for me, followed by 3 little words that still bring tears to my eyes when I think about them, and they were "You go girl"