Transgender job fair in the works for New York

Transgender job fair in the works for New York
Wed Oct 26, 2005 5:32 PM ET
By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - What box should you check on a job application -- male or female -- if neither one is quite right?

That's just one of many issues organizers hope to tackle at what they are calling the nation's first "Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color Job and Education Fair," slated for early December in New York.

From cross-dressers to people who have surgically changed their sex, transgender people often encounter trouble going to school or getting jobs, organizers said at a City Hall news conference.

"Today I'm a model of stability, but I think back to when I was waiting tables and turning tricks," said Melissa Sklarz, 54, an activist and a manager at a credit union. "It's time for us to leave the streets and take our place in mainstream culture.

"It's time for us to be taken seriously," said Sklarz, who was born male.

While there are no official statistics, thousands of people in New York could be called transgender, an umbrella term that refers to people who don't reflect or identify with the gender they were born with, experts say.

"Nobody knows. Figures are meaningless because most people are not 'out,'" said Katherine Rachlin, a New York clinical psychologist who specializes in gender identity.

New York City law prohibits discrimination against transgender people, but employers don't always open their doors, said City Councilwoman Letitia James, of the Working Families Party, who is supporting the job fair.

"Individuals in this community continue to suffer because of prejudice, because of ignorance," she said. "Let them be productive members of society."

Damien Domenack, a landscaper, said society's "two-gender system" poses a problem in everything from job applications to drivers' licenses to health-insurance forms.

"We're limited to two boxes, male and female," said Domenack, 24, who was born female and calls herself a "transman." "There's just two options, and I can't put my true identity."

Domenack said she would add a third option -- a line to describe gender preference.

About 10 companies, including the city's Con Edison utility company, have signed up for the fair, organizers said. As many as 25 businesses and schools are expected at the December 3 event.