My name is Maryanne Arnow, a transgender woman, native Marylander, and Montgomery County Resident of more than 35 years, openly living in mainstream public society.
In the last year, I've had to face distinct increases in discrimination and denigration from the general public in the normal course of my daily life. This is occurring directly as a result of a local campaign from conservative groups that continually foster unwarranted fears, stereotypical misrepresentations, and highly negative references to transgender people, in the public eye of perception.
I have faced extreme social and workplace humiliations in the last several years since beginning my transition (change) of gender. I have applied at dozens of restaurants, retail stores, warehouses, and even major hotel chains such as Marriott, most located in Montgomery County.
I have walked into the ThaiTanium restaurant in Kentlands, professionally and appropriately dressed as always, spoken to their dining room manager, and been told that they were in fact hiring with positions open. I was then told the next day by one of their kitchen managers, who was callous and smirking at best, upon realizing I was transgender, that there are no positions available.
I applied years ago with P.F. Chiang's restaurant at White Flint Mall, prior to beginning my transition. They all but begged me to enter their management training program at that time, based on my resume, interviews, and obvious qualifications. I reapplied last year, upon learning they were still hiring throughout their company. I spoke frankly to more than one manager as to the changes I have made since the first time I had applied, the last of which was cold and callous towards me. I have yet to have had one follow-up call returned since then.
I applied at a retail clothing store in Rockville - Loehman's on Randolph road. The manager was ready to hire me for retail and management training until I informed her I was preparing to transition in gender. She told me that I would have to keep it under wraps, and I was never contacted again after having two interviews with them and basically being told I was going to be hired.. All attempts at follow up were avoided by their staff, and my calls never returned.
I even applied at the Starbucks shop next door to where I live - Kingsview in Germantown. I had spoken with one of their shift managers that has been friendly to me, and specifically asked that I come in to apply, as they were hiring, and he knew I had years of service industry experience. Upon interviewing with the store's general manger, he spent more time looking around the shop to see who was watching us, than any attempt at sincere eye contact with me. They have never returned any follow up to me. The list is so long I cannot even detail it in this letter. It all smacks of intolerance, and unwillingness to give highly qualified people a chance, apparently based more on outward appearance, than professional qualifications.
As it now stands, it is both legal and apparently still socially acceptable to discriminate against anyone like myself in hiring, workplace, housing, public services, and public accommodations. I once again have no civil rights or legal protections at any level. Not federal, state, or county, and mainly as a direct result of the actions of these groups to force a referendum on this law.
We have been burned at the stake, in the use of guilt by association to other highly negative stereotypes such as pedophiles and sexual predators. This has nothing to do with transgender people whatsoever. This is an outright lie. It is a crass, cruel, and disgusting distortion. This is an utter fallacy to the fullest extent that it has been used by these groups.
As a fellow citizen, neighbor, wife, and daughter - as a warm and articulate person, and skilled professional Culinary Artist, I have found this intolerably painful. This is entirely unacceptable by any ethical standard that I know of. There have been direct, and deeply negative impacts on my life as a result of such discriminatory behaviors.
Enough is enough. Help restore my most basic civil rights, and overrule the falsehoods being spread by these groups, once and for all.
Most Sincerely and Respectfully always,
Maryanne A. Arnow
Note: For more on this issue, see our post from February, "What Transgender Opponents Really Think." And if you would like to help Ms. Arnow, visit Basic Rights Montgomery.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Guest Blog: Living with Discrimination as a Transgender Woman
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2 comments:
Discrimination in employment, as in many other arenas, is still with us and is likely to be with us until people are no longer people. Most human beings have a need to define themselves as being on "our side of the line that can't be crossed". That is basic human nature.
The good part of this is that where they draw the line has been pushed back. For example, when I grew up in Aspen Hill, where they drew the line was at being black, or asian, or latino; some even drew the line on the grounds of religion or a perceived lack thereof. Once the line was pushed back to where it was considered itself over the line to discriminate on the basis of race or religion, people's inherent need to have "socially accepted targets for intolerance" selected alternative lifestyles or open expression of non-traditional sexual preferences as "fair game" to exclusion and taunting.
And the line continues to be pushed back, thank goodness, to the point where finally we may live to see the day when the only thing we won't tolerate is victimization and crime. In particular, victimization and oppression of people who are violating no law and committing no crime should be high on our list of things we won't tolerate as a society.
I recently met a person who was intersexed due to prenatal exposure to the steroid diethylstilbestrol ("DES"). Although genetically male and showing some male characteristics, such intersexed persons may have as their only reasonable option choosing to undergo a gender reassignment to female.
After some thought on the matter, it seems to me that discriminating against a person with a birth defect, because they dealt with the birth defect in the way that gives them the highest quality of life they can have, in a way they prefer, would be like discriminating against a thalidomide victim for using limb-extending prostheses or for getting corrective surgery.
It doesn't seem too far from that position to another moral position: it might be a bit farfetched to classify as a "birth defect" the condition of being born with a gender identity other than one matching your chromosomes, but people are what they are and they feel what they feel and they want what they want. If they're not breaking the law, let people be what they want to be. Call it Freedom. Call it Opportunity. Call it America.
And here in America, insofar as no laws are broken and nobody is victimized, we should not discriminate against people for being who and what they are.
Thank you, Thomas, and I say that as both an intersex and transsexual woman. Btw, DES causes both, as is true in my case. Being transsexual is simply a purely neurologic type of intersex condition.
And, yes, while I don't like the term "birth defect," and prefer "congenital variation," many more people know what a birth defect is and being born intersex or transsex is a type of birth defect.
Just fyi -- there is far more to human sexual development (or development in general) than just chromosomes and genes. The new field of Evo Devo, or evolutionary developmental biology, is showing us how the genetic and epigenetic dance of development makes us what we are. I suggest you check out a popular book on the subject written for lay persons, because it is fascinating stuff.
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