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Transsexual employees accepted at Kodak
Source: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/BUSINESS/508240304/1001
Advocate for transgender people hails company’s policy
Ben Rand
Staff writer(August 24, 2005) — Donna Rose vividly remembers the day in 1999 when she first disclosed to her co-workers that she was on her way to becoming a male-to-female transsexual.
At the time, Rose, an information technology consultant, already had gone through femininity training, endured 13 hours of reconstructive surgery, sat for hundreds of hours of painful electrolysis and taken numerous injections of estrogen.
Even with all those struggles, Rose says that going to work as Donna — rather than David — was one of the most frightening days of her life.
It wasn’t exactly easy for her employers either, she says. “They were scared to death,” recalled Rose, a nationally known educator and advocate on transgender issues who visited Rochester on Tuesday. “I was the first one they ever had to deal with.”
Since that day, Rose has gone on to devote her life to making the transgender transition easier for individuals and companies alike. She spoke Tuesday afternoon to about 30 human resources professionals at Eastman Kodak Co. in an address co-sponsored by the company and its employee network for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
The speech represented a homecoming for Rose. Before becoming a female, Rose spent about 15 years in Monroe County working as an information technology consultant at Kodak, Xerox Corp., Bausch & Lomb Inc. and other area companies.
She praised Kodak for being at or near the forefront of enlightened policies toward transgender employees. The company was one of the first to adopt guidelines for supervisors of employees going through transgender transitions. Similar guidelines have been adopted by at least 16 other companies. It’s part of a trend: The Human Rights Campaign of Washington, D.C., says that 54 Fortune 500 companies now include gender identity as part of their nondiscrimination policies. That’s up from eight in 2001.
“Kodak has been a leader since day one,” Rose said.
Transgender individuals are not looking for special treatment from companies, Rose said. “All we want,” she said, “is to be accepted for who we are, not as a man, or a woman, or a transgender individual.”
Diversity-minded companies, she said, will lead the way in helping society come to terms with transgender issues. Doing so “in one sense makes good business sense. In another sense, it saves lives,” she said.
Kodak does not have an estimate of how many employees are transgender in the workplace. But it’s not a rare occurrence, says Amy Friend, president of Kodak’s Lambda group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
Friend says she has heard of at least four Kodak employees in the midst of a transgender transition.
So when the company had a chance to invite Rose as a speaker, “we jumped all over it,” Friend says.
An employee who has gone through a male-to-female transition is Jo Vollmer, a research technician at Kodak the past 14 years. Vollmer, who came out eight or nine years ago, does not intend to go through sex change surgery.
Coming out was “the most scary thing in my life,” Vollmer said, but both co-workers and supervisors were very supportive.
He says the company handled the transition “very well.”
Rose will be back in Rochester leading a workshop at the fifth annual Equality Leadership Conference sponsored by the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley. It’s scheduled for Oct. 21. The keynote speaker will be Margaret Stumpp, a senior vice president at Prudential Financial. Stumpp has gone through a male-to-female transition.
“Companies are realizing it’s good business to support their employees,” said Kris Hinesley, gay alliance executive director.
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