Gov’t-Funded Programs Teach Job Skills to Transgendered People
- Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:24am by
Billy Hallowell
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In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, from left, Arriel Michelle Williams, standing, Cindi Reyes, Tania Duran and Laya Monarez listen the teacher during the Project Empowerment workshop at Department of Employment Services in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — Some local governments are beginning to fund jobs programs aimed at transgendered communities. Why, you ask? Take, for instance, Arriel Michelle Williams, who is in the early stages of undergoing a physical transformation from man to woman.
The clanging dissonance between her masculine voice and high heels, earrings and fashionable ladies’ tops risks disquieting potential employers. The awkwardness that this scenario creates, according to proponents of these training programs, leaves Williams and her comrades at a disadvantage when it comes to finding gainful employment.
Williams left high school before graduation, so her bare-bones resume is limited to stints in a Burger King kitchen, as a parking attendant, volunteering at a drug addiction center and fetching food orders at an Atlanta sports arena.
Even with those obstacles – not to mention a poor economy – the 26-year-old is pursuing a social work career, and the government’s helping her get ready. Williams and 16 other transgender men and women are graduating Friday from a month-long, city-funded job training and life skills pilot program in the District of Columbia that aims to find jobs for an often-marginalized population.
“I don’t like the stigma that all transgenders are sex workers, and that‘s all they’re good for. I know for myself, I am an intelligent individual and very resourceful to last over 10 years on the streets,” said Williams, who was born Terrell Williams and began gender-changing hormone treatments about three months ago. “I just felt that this was the time to be a part of something greater than me.”
Washington’s program is one of several transgender-oriented career development classes, workshops or job fairs that have popped up around the country. D.C. officials say theirs is unique because it’s organized and fully funded by the city government.
The programs, which teach basics like creating a resume as well as more nuanced workplace skills, reflect a growing appreciation for the workplace obstacles confronting transgender people. Studies show those who identify as transgender routinely endure discrimination, struggle with unemployment, and turn in disproportionate numbers to drug dealing and prostitution to earn money.
“What we see is people who transition, their income rapidly declines. It happens so fast for some people that many folks don’t have a safety net, whether that’s family to lean on or friends or financial savings,” said Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.
Only 15 states plus the District of Columbia have laws banning workplace discrimination based on gender identity, which give workers an avenue to file lawsuits. But even when employers are unfazed by the prospect of hiring transgender workers, other hurdles remain.
Advocates say they regularly encounter transgender job hopefuls who left school early because of bullying and therefore have little formal schooling or work history. Some people change jobs – and their gender and legal name – later in life, which can make it difficult to prove the authenticity of what may be an impressive resume. Then there are workers who get interviews but are rejected after presenting themselves in person as transgender, not to mention workers who select jobs at transgender organizations because they think that’s their only option.
A survey of 6,450 transgender people released in February by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that 90 percent of respondents had reported harassment or discrimination on the job; 15 percent said they left school early because of harassment; and 26 percent said they’d lost a job because they were transgender. Police in D.C. have also responded to a series of attacks in recent months against transgender people, though there’s no indication the incidents are related.
Other cities are trying to address the problem, though typically it’s a private organization leading the way.
The San Francisco LGBT Community Center receives roughly $195,000 from the city to provide transgender job services, despite a threatened funding cut last year, said Clair Farley, the center’s employment services specialist. She said the center’s Transgender Economic Employment Initiative has placed people into more than 300 jobs, and the program offers cover letter support, resume-building labs, networking opportunities and vocational academies. A local Goodwill Industries thrift store opened last year as a jobs program for transgender workers after partnering with the TEEI.
The Human Rights Campaign hosted a job readiness program for transgender people in Boston last February that drew about 75 people, Scott said. The GLBT Community Center of Colorado in May held a series of preparedness workshops this year, as well as a job fair that drew employers like Kaiser Permanente and Lockheed Martin, said Amy Drayer, vice president for strategic initiatives.
A transgender job training program offered by a nonprofit in Hawaii recently folded after its funding ran out, but is hoping to restart operations.
Though no one thinks job training alone can undo deep-rooted discrimination, advocates say the programs can at least teach rudimentary skills to get transgender applicants started.
“What we can do is empower the transgender community to feel as confident as possible when they go in,” Drayer said.
The D.C. job training is part of Project Empowerment, a government-run program that helps ex-convicts, past drug addicts and others find jobs. Project Empowerment receives $11 million from the city, said director Charles Jones, though he could not say how much money is specifically allotted to the transgender program. That sum includes an $8.25-per-hour subsidized wage the city temporarily offers to the program’s graduates, who are linked up with employers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors based on their skills and work experience.
The initiative has been running for about 10 years, but this is the first time a class of strictly transgender students was enrolled.
Of course, the flagging job market – D.C.’s unemployment rate in August was 10.9 percent – affects far more than transgender people, and it may seem a tough time for the city to fund this particular program. But Jones said he’s heard no pushback and said the city benefits if transgender residents are gainfully employed.
“If someone doesn’t know how to go out for a job interview or dress (for an interview), then I think it’s our responsibility to reach them,” Jones said.
Participants learn everything from how to dress for an interview to how to create a resume to how to diffuse conflict. In one recent class, an instructor counseled students about anger management in the workplace “You get too crazy and can’t control yourself, what’s going to happen?” the instructor asked. “Explode!” came one answer. “Possibly get fired!” was another.
Williams, who says she was kicked out of her St. Louis home as a teenager because she was gay but has since obtained her GED, hopes to use the training program as a springboard to one day open a senior citizens home for gays, lesbians and transgenders. She says the class helped train her to adjust to the mundane rituals of a steady job, such as arriving on time each day and remembering to pack a lunch for herself.
“We’re not looking for a handout, we’re looking for a hand,” she said. “And we’ve always just been looking for a hand.”
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Comments (98)
mcFirst
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 1:59pmwhat do they really learn? i really doubt any topic to make it any easier for them.
Report Post »ACLUHater
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 4:00pmI guess when THE GREAT FRAUD promised to go through the budget line by line, he overlooked this one…
Report Post »demint.disciple
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 6:20pmYuck !!!
Report Post »waggie
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 7:50pmThis is shameful on SO many levels…
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:28am“what do they really learn?”
I imagine that typically it involves the life-skills (such as resume writing or doing a good interview) which were missed because the person was dealing with the social stigma of being trans.
“This is shameful on SO many levels…”
how so? i thought conservatives wanted people working and productive, not on the public dole?
Report Post »james.norman
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 1:01pmThis program speaks to the stupidity of our government and money completely wasted. From reading the article these people don’t need help packing a lunch and showing up on time. They are high school drop outs, GEDers etc… What these people need is to go to school and get an education. They don’t need a program, they can do it on their own.
Report Post »I’ve known some that transitioned. It is not who they are attracted to, as in gay and lesbian, it is who they identify as. The comments about mutilating themselves are pretty harsh. For one who are they hurting? They are working on themselves, not someone else. I wonder how many that have commented have had some type of cosmetic prcedure themselves, changed a hair color, lasic, nose job, liposuction. etc…?
ECEGeorgia
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 1:42pmThank you James
Report Post »I am a successful, 68 year old Transgendered male with first knowledge before the age of 5. I have been married to the same wonderful woman for 48 years and have 3 successful adult children and 5 grandchildren. All know of my transgenderedness. I am an ultra-conservative Beck fan.
For those commenting here about the outrage of Govt funding job skill programs I am in 100% agreement. We need the government out of our schools as well.
I have known hundreds of very successful transgendered males. Most were not so trangendered that they were driven to Transsexual solutions, available now. None of them were danger to society.
Actually this article is refreshingly frank regarding younger transgenders, facing public perception.
NOT EASY – but then again not grounds for an entitlement.
In times gone by transgendered faced frontal lobotomy operations, and asylums. Mutilation of a different sort.
No easy answer here. Gotta work! As a transgender I always figured I even had to earn my way when enfemme.
GABOB
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 8:21pm@EGA
Wow, honesty is like a breath of fresh air. You accepted who you are and don’t expect any special treatment. Thanks!
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:32amI respectfully dissent from the notion that this is a waste or a bad idea. Giving people the skills to get and retain a job is exactly what the government SHOULD be doing – as opposed to simply leaving you to your own devices and giving you a weekly check until your term runs out.
Conservatives ought favor anything that makes people productive. the investment per pupil in this class HAS to be WILDLY less than the expense of things like food stamps and unemployment benefits and so forth would be if they remain among the long-term unemployed (and yes, i know those who haven‘t been working don’t draw UI but I speak in general terms)
Report Post »dnnyshdy
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 11:59amWaste of gov. money and a waste of air.
Report Post »Jaimo
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 12:38pmWait, why can’t these transgendered people do the same jobs they were doing before they became transgendered?
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:07pmProlly because if they come out on the job, they tend to get fired.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:39pmLie on your resume and you can get fired. If I was hired at a LGBT job and later came out as a “straight” I would expect to get fired for lying on my application. Makes sense when the shoe is on the other foot. What you say LPH-P’s?
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 2:32amIf your job performance hinged on you being LGBT, then you would be correct. I can think of few examples where an employee’s sexuality would even be a factor in job performance and to the best of my recollection, asking about sexuality or gender issues is iron clad illegal in all American jurisdictions of which I’m aware. Even asking a straight woman if she had any children or if she would seek to have children is illegal. Yes, it might be an important bit of information for an employer to be able to predict if this candidate for employment might one day in the coming year or two suddenly qualify for 1-3 months of unpaid leave to give birth and bond with her newborn during which the position for which she is applying would again go unfilled, but it’s also sex discrimination, which is illegal in employment issues.
So, I fail to comprehend your question. What possible question on a LEGAL job application or during a LEGAL interview process could a closetted LGBT person answer which could be pointed to as having been a lie when they come out of the closet after being hired? And though it might still be a common field on a lot of applications and membership forms outside of employment, having something as simple as “[ ] Male [ ] Female (check one)” on an employment application is legally verbotten, so saying this person checked female and now she claims she’s a trans-man could not be the basis for suck a dismissal.
Report Post »Marine 1
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 12:34pmJust great! More of our taxpayer money going to a cause we didn’t want it going to. This nation is falling apart at the seams.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:09pmWhat if they are training them to be Marines? If a Government program trains them, then a Government service can’t refuse them. Have fun in the new Obama, DoD, DoJ “Fox hole”.
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 1:42amIt is just another way of wasting tax payers dollars. Why are theses people getting special treatment? They have the same opportunities as the rest of us. All of these groups jumping on the band-wagon to get a free ride. Every day something new pops up. The decesion was their’s not ours and they need to be responsible enough to take care of it themselves. I would never mistreat them or wish them harm but I do not feel that it is something that anyone else should have to pay for. .
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:39am@Pamala – they are not the first or last demographic to get targeted training. It’s based on which group is in the worst economic state, because the goal is to have fewer unemployed poor people on the public dole.
I‘m mystified that on a conservative site so many can’t seem to comprehend that. the cost of this program, divided over the number of people participating, is minuscule compared to what it would cost for all of them to, for instance, be one food stamps for three months. Yall need to look past your prejudice and think logically.
Report Post »America First
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 12:31pmAnother way to s crew the American taxpayer!
Report Post »mikee1
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 12:22pmTo all unemployed transgendered: Move to San Francisco. You can get a job near the Wharf as a FREAK. Stand out there, sit out there, show pics of yourself BEFORE AND AFTER, tell your story. You will make a ton of money. No, really, do it. You all like the freak attention. This is a real OPPORTUNITY. WRIGLEYVILLE, CHICAGO COULD BE ANOTHER HOT SITE. LOL.
Report Post »hogtrashhd
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:56ammost of these transgenders are actually street prostitutes.. and these people get a whole month of training for what??? to be rocket scientists???? the way things are in the schools and colleges.. probably.. what they are doing is mutilation…. I have never understood this transgender thing.. they have to cut a dudes thing off.. doesn’t that make them eunuchs??? girls are an add on.. how in the hell do they get off??? or is the pretense all it’s about??? by watching the dykes and fairies dressing up like men and women.. that’s all it seems to be.. just pretense as usual…they should have taken up theatre to act this crap out..
Report Post »ECEGeorgia
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 1:51pmAh HA
Report Post »An expert on the transgendered!
Was it you who tried to take my life in Atlanta when walking to my car, about 20 years ago?
The-Monk
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:32pm@ECEGeorgia
Report Post »I hope you’re not saying that the only people who get mugged or attacked while walking to their car are transgendered people like yourself? I think the stats on violence will show that more straight people get mugged or attacked than all the LGBT combined. I’m a white, straight, male and I’ve been attacked many times. Mostly in Wash, DC., while leaving work back in the late 70′s. 14th and I street to be exact. That’s where the DEA is/was located and it didn’t matter. Leave work, walk to the parking garage, 5 or 6 blacks come out of nowhere, demand my money, won’t take “no” for an answer, won’t take “I don’t have any money” for an answer. “What makes you soooo special?” I’ve been called honky, white trash, ******* and a lot worse. I’ve had guns pointed at me, knives and baseball bats used to attack me and guess what? I’m not L or G or B or T!!!! So I guess you are saying that if I was a man dressed as a woman and the same thing happened it would be anti-LGBT? Sorry, there are just some bad people on the Planet who will attack anyone for any reason. Don’t take it personally, just pull up your panty-hose and move on. You’re not alone when it comes to acts of violence… except in your own limited, socialist, “you owe me a living” small mind.
Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:46am@hog – don’t suppose it ever occurred to you to educate yourself on a condition before you bashed those who had to deal with it? I suppose you are simply content to have found a group of folks that you are better than and that’s enough.
@monk – seems to me you got awfully harsh there at the end and poured some of your own assumptions into georgia’s comments. It’s quite true that straight people do suffer violence for random reasons (albeit the aggregate number is misleading since you make up 97% of the population – a percentage rate is much more revealing) but the distinction comes in this regard: with very very VERY few exceptions – no one is ever attacked BECAUSE the are straight. conversely, for LGB/T people, that status is – in the majority of cases – the specific cause of the attack, as stated by the attacker themselves.
Report Post »One does not have to be a professional victim to honestly assess the matter of motive.
RightPolitically
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:16amThis is the kind of “insanity” we get when the mindless intellectual elites take over government and the agencies our tax dollars pay for. After the next big election, CUT BACK, OBLITERATE AND DE-FUND all worthless, nonsensical stuff like this. CHOKE OFF THE MONEY AND WE CHOKE OFF THE STUPIDITY.
Report Post »TxMadMac
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:50amBlessed HI, you got it so very right ! These so called dr‘s and the gov’t are so twisted and evil that they would encourage them to mutilate their bodies and take hormones for the rest of their shortened life. It has been proven that their lifespan will only last 50-60 years. Pray for them.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:52amthe lifespan of those among us who take our own lives because we can’t live with being seen as freaks by yall “normal” folks are considerably less than that.
oh, and by the way, it‘s utter BS that it’s been “proven” that transitioned transsexuals live significantly fewer years than non-trans people, and even if you were to do such a study you’d have to find a way to control for the behavior of the years BEFORE transition.
if, for instance, a person born male drowns their unhappiness in alcohol for 30 years, THEN transitions, takes hormones and so forth….and dies 10 years too soon, you have to quantify – was it the hormones which shortened the lifespan or the alcohol? We do know that stress is a MAJOR negative impact or of health, and being trans is perhaps the single most stressful condition one can have, both in the suppression of it and the cost (emotionally and financially and pain-wise) of transition.
The problem with your position is, transition is the CURE for that stress, not the cause of it.
In any case, in order to get a “clean” study of whether or not transition does in fact shorten lifespans, you’d have to start with a sample group of young people who transitioned no later than age 21 and then follow that group over the next 50 years or more and see what happened – and no such study has ever been completed.
Report Post »leftcoastslut
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:48amit’s my money and i want it now…… mindset of these young and a lot of fellow americans.
i think we need to find and interview the parents and send them the bill for cleaning up after their offspring. i say arrest them all.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:56amMost parents of transsexuals are vehemently, sometimes violently, against the idea their offspring might be trans and it’s not at all uncommon for the child to be disowned and disavowed. Lots of otherwise good parents too. My own mom and dad were hard working, honest, Christian, family-oriented people who never molested me nor overlooked such abuse from anyone else (to be clear, i never was exposed to anything sexual in any way until well after puberty)
Yet for all that, I was born transsexual anyway. when the found evidence of my tendencies, they did not in any way “tolerate” or “encourage” my “weirdness” and they reacted in ways I’m sure you would highly approve of.
Which, of course, was completely useless as a solution. that you think that the parents had anything to do with these people’s conditions is a demonstration of profound ignorance on your part.
not that THAT condition isn’t very very common on the blaze when it comes to subjects related to transsexuals.
Report Post »elosogrande
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:42amThere’s no need to give job training to transgendered people. It’s just another way to pander to a group in order to buy their vote, which has become just about the only thing that our local, state and federal governments do today.
Report Post »kapnkd
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:39amThis seems to be appropriate…A screwed up government teaching a bunch of screwed up people!!
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:21amWTF – I don’t need to know anything about their sex, changed sex or whatever…All I need to know is, can they work, are they capable of performing…sheesh…get over it and go to work.
Stop spending my money to further their agenda.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:59amwell and good – provided the person making the hiring decision shares your point of view. In my experience, the vast majority do not. it’s not us who are not interested in working, it‘s employers who can’t be troubled to give us a chance to do the job.
Report Post »I’ve applied for the most menial of labor, despite holding a respectable college degree, and almost never get so much as an interview, let alone an offer.
thegreatcarnac
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:14amThe money wasted by this government and especially by this regime is mind-boggling. There is NO common sense in Washington D.C. and there is no accountability involved with the tax-payer’s money. The government needs to be fundamentally changed back to what the constitution provides.
Report Post »ares338
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:13amBy having a special program for these people are they admitting they are different? I thought the idea was that everyone should be treated the same!
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:00amdifferent in how we are perceived by employers, thus an “at risk” group for poverty. Ultimately, the best training might be of the sort that educates employers out of their bigoted assumptions so these people have a chance – but either way, the goal of getting folks in the work force and off the dole SHOULD be one conservatives would applaud.
Report Post »ColoradoMaverick
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:08amDid you notice that Cindi Reyes (woman in blue dress) is checking out Arriel Michelle Williams? Funky!
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:01am.
Report Post »Class 1001 in How not to look like a freak…….
Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:02amif you saw this photograph at random, without being connected to a story, it wouldn’t have crossed your mind that any of those people were trans. i’d call that not looking like a freak.
Report Post »hi
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:56amThose poor , lost folks! Are there any programs to help them BEFORE they mutilate their bodies? Although the government should stay out and stop wasting money.
If you think you want to be a different sex, come to a Bible church and learn about how Jesus loves you. You were fearfully and wonderfully created by a loving God. He can set you free from this twisted bondage.
Report Post »ECEGeorgia
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 2:11pmHi Hi
Report Post »I am a successful 68 year old transgendered male, married 48 years, 3 kids, 5 grandkids. All great contributors to society, none (to my knowledge) transgendered. I am still working 40 to 50 hours a week. I also have never been tempted to ‘mutilate’ myself.
I am a devout Christian who went to Church until age 18.
I left the dogmatic church but retained the morals of Christianity. I believe as does Glenn in individual salvation.
The ‘bible church’ doesen‘t have a very well educated or compassionate viewpoint of the variations in the human condition or separating what is ’good’ and bad, about any given individual.
The Church and both my wife’s parents and my parents forbade a Protestant from marrying a Catholic! I had to ‘sign’ my future kids religous future over to the Catholic church before it could happen. Inte-faith intolerance!
The-Monk
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:02pm@ECEGeorgia
Report Post »It’s a lot simpler than you make it out to be. I’m a Monk and I look to Nature for answers and not any Holy Books. So here it is: a Man and a Woman can have sex, they can procreate and it doesn’t kill them. A Woman and a Woman can have sex, they can‘t procreate and it doesn’t kill them. A Man and a Man can have sex, they can’t procreate but it can kill them and usually does. You can’t fool Mother Nature and if you try… make sure you have a Will written out. You’ll most likely need it.
Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:09amthat’s cute and all hi. I believed that myself once upon a time, 25 years ago.
God disapproves, I was told
God would heal me if I’d give it to him, I was told.
So I did. I took a leap of faith and committed my whole heart to the idea that God was able and willing to heal me of this curse and in his time would make me “normal” and free me of my “besetting sin”
I became the most faithful of Christians, in attendance, in tithing, in even teaching and eventually entering the ministry and preaching his word. All the while crying out in heartfelt tears night after night for his deliverance to come (yet confident that it WOULD)
After two decades of that, it began to dawn on me that the gracious, loving, perfect God i believed in could not possibly be a being who would let one of his children suffer in soul-wracking misery for 20 straight years waiting for a train that never came. Whatever his reasons, he was NOT going to heal me – so I had to reconcile what I’d been taught to believe with what God ACTUALLY said and what I knew to be true of him in the whole context of his revelation.
Turns out, I’d been (unintentionally) lied to. Just as you are (unintentionally) lying now.I promise you, if you could “god it away” mine would have been gone 20 years or more ago. no one ever wanted to be this way less than me. But it won’t work. god loves me in spite of my birth defect, and i suggest Christians do what he said for them to do and follow his lead.
Report Post »RugerHoyt
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:51amI didn’t even bother reading the article…the heading p!$$es me off enough
Report Post »demint.disciple
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 6:31pm@ECEGeorgia.. It’s sad.. you keep mentioning your family , your kids and grand kids and such as if they agree with you but you actually need help and don’t realize it.. You need help to actually think that your family agrees with your CHOICE and think it’s ok.. My guess is they are embarrassed but coddle you because they don’t know what else to do so they grin and bear it only for the fact that you “just had to tell them” for your own selfish reasons. Even if I WAS transgendered I would NEVER put my family in that kind of situtation just so I COULD be happy.. You‘re in need of help and the sad part is that you don’t even realize it..
Report Post »ColoradoMaverick
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:48amIsn’t that nice? I really do feel for transgendered people. I can’t imagine what that must be like. But having our tax dollars be used to teach job skills to a “class” of people like this, I simply do not understand the logic. What does their sexual orientation or their sexual identity have to do with getting a job? Are you saying that they are so fouled up in the head, we need to help them? Let them be themselves and figure out how to make a living on their own, just like the rest of us do.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:20amif the argument is that the government should never help ANYone find a job (no re-training for displaced workers, not job service office, etc) then – ok. i think that‘s short sighted given the alternatives but i’m cool with a difference of opinion there.
BUT don’t misunderstand this as something were they are making trans people the exception out of all other sorts of folks to get such help. the government, on various level, has a HUGE number of things it’s doing to try to get a wide variety of people into the job force. These people wouldn’t even be a story if so many folks were not shocked that these “perverts” were not being properly shunned for their supposed insanity.
Report Post »JLGunner
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:48amI’ve been working and paying taxes since I was 14. My kids got “nothing” as far as assistance with their college tuition, but yet my tax dollars are used to help out some confused, mentally insufficient idiots. Your welcome.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:45amI don’t care if they were the best in their field, I still wouldn’t hire them. Because as long as they are confused about their gender then they would be questioning everything else in the field they are entering. Instead of doing the job that was needed to be done.
Report Post »DanWesson455
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:49amHow to stand to pee? How to sit and pee? I mean what can they teach em that they couldn’t learn somewhere else?
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:14amApparently they have to teach them how to dress, how to make themselves lunch, How to arrive on time.
Report Post »I have been doing all those since I was 7 years old. My father was working and my mother had run off and us 5 kids had to learn fast how to take care of ourselves. We didn’t receive any government money.
loriann12
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:09amThey also have to teach them how to make their voice match their appearance…can’t have that deep resonating voice coming from someone who looks hot in a skirt. And the one in the blue dress looks like “she” thinks she‘s a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:31amand this, for the room, is the answer to your question “why don’t they just get a job?”
nevermind that the post-transition trans person is FAR more mentally stable than the pre-transition person living in denial and fear and repression.
nevermind that it is easily demonstrated that post-tranistion transsexuals are out there every day going about their lives as successful lawyers, doctors, surgeons even, business-people, scientists, engineers, and much much more.
nevermind that the only true negative in the out transsexuals life is the reaction they get from the “normal” folks, not the terms of the condition itself – treating transsexuals is a quite straightforward procedure that has a better record of success than treating almost any comparable major condition – it is costly (largely because it’s not covered by most insurance) but quite effective. The problem is a social one, and lies with the narrow minded views we encounter among the ill-informed and the uncaring.
nope – nevermind any of that, just take the easy way out and hire another member of the “normal” club lest your tender eyes be afflicted with a person unlike yourself.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:45am“as they transform, they see their income drastically diminish”
so???? how does that fact give legitimate reason for the government to spend tax payers money because OF A CHOICE THEY CHOSE TO MAKE ????????
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:50amYeah, those hormones and operations are not cheap. Of course their going to see their money go away.
Report Post »Why don’t they get into porn? Very lucrative and just up their … alley.
I’m sure like every other perversity out here, there is a website dedicated to the he-shes.
Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:12amwell yeah, we could all just eat a bullet and that would be a lot cheaper on the rest of yall, right? to say nothing of the increased peace of mind. the truth is, NO ONE who can not transition and stay sane does it. Transition is a result of a last ditch desperation “do this or die” situation, not a whim.
Report Post »Tammy_Beth
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 5:26am@ulyssesp – I assure you the money often goes away long before the HRT and surgery (and a lot of other things) start getting paid for. In fact, most of us who do manage to go through all that physical alteration to completion actually do have the funds to do it and come out ok on the other side. those of us who are very broke are not spending money on the surgeon – we’re spending it on gas and groceries instead, when we have any at all.
there are indeed porn sites, and there are those among us who resort to sex work (no matter how disgusting they might find it) because in this world it’s the only option available to achieve some peace in their soul (that is, keep food on the table and finish their transition). It’s pretty telling that the solution to this, for you, is “let them go on and do porn” – I wasn’t aware that conservatives were pro-porn.
In any case, even if one were to lower themselves to that – even porn has certain standards, and until you reach a certain point in the physical transformation, you are not what they are looking for.
oh, and some of us are simply too ugly too ;)
Report Post »slr4528
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:44amWhat the H**l ?????
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:43am“She says the class helped train her to adjust to the mundane rituals of a steady job, such as arriving on time each day and remembering to pack a lunch for herself.”
Really?? Money is being spent to teach these people how to tell time (to not be late) and to remember to feed themselves???
Report Post »ColoradoMaverick
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 9:52amBiohazard: This is the new reality in America. Everyone is a victim of their own birth. Everyone will be classified as special needs in order to get special help. We won’t be able to think for ourselves. We will need someone from the government to wake us up in the morning, to feed us, to pay our wages because we can’t hold a job. They will have to brush our teeth, wipe our butts and read us a bedtime story at night because our parents will not be capable of raising us.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:10amI know, and it’s completely ridiculous. This is all becoming very New World Order. The progressives want to make everybody a good World Citizen. They would like to have cradle to grave care beginning in the hatchery (since motherhood/parenthood is so…. misogynistic or misandrous or…. something) though the conditioning phases of development until death. In the meantime, we must treat everybody as being special so that way no one is special at all. That part’s from the Incredibles, BTW. :)
Anyhoo, don’t we have BETTER things to spend our money on, like reducing our national debt??
Report Post »NOTAMUSHROOM
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 10:16am“She says the class helped train her to adjust to the mundane rituals of a steady job, such as arriving on time each day and remembering to pack a lunch for herself.”
Wow. I had no idea that being gender confused meant you were THAT stupid!
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on October 7, 2011 at 11:03amApparently so. Then again, that would explain why certain posters around here (like Encinom, Steelhead, Rose-Ellen, and Discord) are pretty stupid…… ;)
Report Post »Discord
Posted on October 8, 2011 at 4:17amExcept I’m not gender confused.
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