TS/TV/CD Love Blog - Because Of Your Uniqueness

Congress is getting an earful. in a historic first, On June 26 they heard from a number of transgender Americans about how honesty often leads to a lost career, homelessness and even suicide.

Witnesses included gay Reps. Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin; four transgender people, including an aeronautics engineer; and a spokesman for Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., one of more than 150 Fortune 500 companies with a non-discrimination policy on gender identity.

One of the witnesses, David/Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated veteran, is no stranger to a challenge. Schroer was an Airborne Ranger qualified Special Forces officer who completed over 450 parachute jumps, received numerous decorations including the Defense Superior Service Medal, and was hand-picked to head up a classified national security operation. She began taking steps to transition from male to female shortly after retiring as a Colonel after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army.

When she interviewed for a job as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress, she thought she’d found the perfect fit, given her background and 16,000-volume home library collection on military history, the art of war, international relations, and political philosophy. Schroer accepted the position, but when she told her future supervisor that she was in the process of gender transition, they rescinded the job offer. (The ACLU is now representing her in a Title VII sex discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress.)

The hearing was an important first step in educating Congress about why Uncle Sam should guarantee transgender workers the right to be evaluated solely on ability.

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