Manager's Report

Author Unknown

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Employment Issues for the Transgender Community high on the Agenda

A number of initiatives have been undertaken in recent months to address the appalling unemployment rates that transgender people are forced to endure. We are now working very closely with government agencies on two fronts to try to achieve employment equity and the outlook is promising.

The Two Major Initiatives:

Employment Equity Specialists Association (E.E.S.A.)

Most of you will be aware that I have been working with E.E.S.A. over recent months endeavouring to raise awareness of transgender issues. E.E.S.A. comprises representatives from a wide range of state government departments, statutory authorities and local government. All representatives are E.E.O. practitioners, committed to ensuring that there is employment equity in the public sector.

On November 18 and 19, E.E.S.A. held a conference in Sydney and transgender issues featured significantly on the program. Apart from myself, three other transgender people were invited by E.E.S.A. to attend the conference. The presence of four transgender people at a conference on equity achieved enormous results in raising awareness of and commitment to our community. Many of the delegates had no knowledge of transgender people prior to the conference, whereas at the end of the two days we were firmly on their equity agendas.

My feeling was that the conference represented a milestone in working towards equity for our community and my thanks to the three transgender attendees for doing such a great job in promoting our community and enhancing our employment prospects in the future. We will continue our endeavours with E.E.S.A. in the coming months.

Transgender Working Party.

In parallel to the work being done with E.E.S.A. the Transgender Working Party has adopted employment as the major focus issue in the immediate future. The working party will be encouraging the development of all of government policy to improve the employment prospects of transgenders. Our hope will be to have employment of transgender people as an integral part of government policy.

If we are successful in this aim then this will enhance the capacity for E.E.S.A. delegates to pursue the issue within their individual organisations.

While I cannot give a time frame on this process I am confident that doors will being to open. It is critical that when they do, there are transgender people ready to go through them. The sooner we increase the transgender presence in the mainstream workforce, the sooner we can expect to overcome the discrimination in the general community that has plagued us in the past.

If you are interested in establishing a career in the public sector, contact me with your details. There will be more opportunities for transgender people to attend E.E.S.A. meetings and I will be inviting those people who have expressed an interest.

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