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Federal Job Site Ends Gender Identity Bias
Submitted by E. Ross on Monday, 18 January 2010 – 8:59 PMNo Comment
If you are a transgender Alaskan looking for work, hundreds of local open positions are now more available to you: the federal government’s official job site added gender identity to the hiring nondiscrimination policy.
And if you’re a red-shirted local who thinks Alaska is not ready to protect transgender workers from job discrimination, it’s time to get ready for workplace diversity.
While the Anchorage effort for gay and trans protections dragged on last summer, the federal government was evaluating it’s employment practices. On Jan 5, gender identity was added to the equal-employment opportunity notices on www.usajobs.gov, the federal job site.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said, “The largest employer in the country is doing what all the other large employers in the country are doing, so that’s really great news.”
The change brought criticism from social conservatives, who trotted out the same nonsense we heard in Anchorage: biology = destiny, trans people are faking it, and if we protect them from discrimination the sky will fall.
But the federal hiring practices are now trans-inclusive, and there are HUNDREDS of open federal positions based in Alaska.
The USAJOBS search page currently lists 292 federal job openings in Alaska, but the Alaska page lists 881 results (the anywhere-in-the-US positions make up the difference.)
- There are currently 80 federal job openings based in Anchorage, 57 in Fairbanks, 23 in Juneau, 25 in Homer, etc. and others are listed for regions or the whole state.
- Almost all are full-time and many are permanent.
- They cover 21 fields, mostly science, engineering, office work and medical/health, but also business, finance, education, safety, communications, trades, transportation, and more.
- They represent 16 agencies, primarily Agriculture, Interior, the Air Force and the Army, but also Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Transportation, and the VA…
Wait, what? Openly gay and trans people cannot serve in the military, but we can work for the military in civilian positions, even on base, and they can’t discriminate against us in hiring for those jobs. Well, that’s interesting.
OK, trans people looking for work in Alaska, head over to the USAJOBS site and check out the options on the Alaska page. You’ll find all kinds of interesting jobs, and a shiny new trans-inclusive hiring policy.
Rachel Maddow covered the policy change following a segment on Amanda Simpson, the first transwoman appointed by Pres. Obama:
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