Transgender Job Seekers Face Uphill Battle Blake Ellis - CNNMoney
go to original February 24, 2013

Transgender and enemployed for 4 years (CNN)

Rebecca Juro, 50, has been unemployed for the last four years and she can't help but think it's because she's transgender.

She has applied for almost 100 jobs and has gone on close to 20 interviews, but there have been no offers. No one says they aren't hiring her because she's transgender. But some employers tell her the job has been filled even though she continues to see postings for it online. Others have "laughed in my face."

"With as many non-trans people out of work as there are, it seems almost no one is going to hire a trans woman when there's another choice," said Juro, who lives at home with her mom as she job hunts.

Transgender is a term used for people who identify as a different gender from the one they were given at birth. Some undergo surgery or take hormones to change their bodies.

And as millions of Americans struggle with unemployment, this community is being hit especially hard.

It's hard to pin down a precise jobless rate since there's so little transgender-specific data available. The most recent comprehensive study of more than 6,000 transgender individuals was released in 2011 by the National Center for Transgender Equality. This report found the transgender jobless rate to be 14% - double the national rate - and as high as 28% for black respondents. And a recent online Prudential survey of 49 transgender individuals had similar findings.

... Even those who find jobs often end up taking significant pay cuts, said Lisa Mottet, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project.

Read the whole story at CNNMoney

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