97
A large number of transgender job applicants don’t even make it past the interview process, according to Ortiz (Andrew Ortiz, a staff attorney at the Transgender Law Center). Further, he pointed out, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, under Donald Trump, has in fact been weaponized against trans people, dropping cases it had brought on behalf of trans employees and instructing career staff not to process trans employees’ complaints.
“We have no faith that this EEOC has any interest in protecting the rights of trans folks, and is even doing things to make it easier to treat them poorly,” Ortiz said.
In an email, Ash Lazarus Orr, press relations manager at Advocates for Trans Equality, said trans people continue to face “major barriers” to employment. Orr cited the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, an anonymous online survey for transgender people ages 16 and older, which found that more than 80 percent of respondents reported being harassed or discriminated against at work because of their gender identity, more than 10 percent who said they had been fired, forced to resign, or laid off due to it, and a jobless rate among the trans community overall nearing 20 percent.
“The dismissal of trans employees has consequences beyond the individual,” Lazarus Orr said, “it can perpetuate a culture of discrimination and exclusion that discourages talented trans people from pursuing fulfilling careers.”