Trigger Warning: There will be mention of specific transphobic slurs in this post. Please don’t proceed if you might be triggered.

Random hotel I stayed at on work trip..

This is a very very short post, but it’s setting up for future posts.

I have been at my current employer (the Department of Defense) for over 8 months now and I have confirmed (not to anyone’s surprise) that they are extremely transphobic. I don’t mean my coworkers, I have talked about them and it has been pretty accepting, but I mean from the organization itself.

I am not sure if I mentioned this specific incident, but it is worth talking about again even if I had (I couldn’t find reference). I was hired last August, the second to last hire for the agency for the unforeseen future (due to the whole capital hill budget issues). My first three days were filled with different meetings, classes, etc to bring me up to speed on the culture, rules and protections that my agency gives.

One of the first lectures/meetings we did was the EEOC training. It ran the whole gamut of women, minorities and gay rights. At this point, the head of EEOC (the lady in charge of any issues with equal employment opportunities) gave a speech on a new approved protection because of “Obama” as she put it. She said “Trannys are now protected by our President’s executive order”.

Yes, she said the word Tranny.

This was only an hour into my career with my agency. I think my jaw hit the ground and I just sat there stunned.

This was last August. The reason I am telling you this now is for some upcoming posts, so I just wanted to lay down the starting point of my journey through the DoD trying to get Jello benefits. Stand by for more to come.