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Good luck, Steve Stanton!

By Denise

Like everyone else, I've been following Steve Stanton's case in Largo.  For me, the case holds a bit of extra significance as I used to own a home in Largo and I used to work for a company with a Largo mailing address.  There have been dozens and dozens of articles written about this embattled city manager and I won't try and catalog them here or to offer my assessment of his case.

What I will say is that I am sorry that it has come to this.  Having experienced both sides -- a successful transition and a firing (or three) due to being transgender -- I really empathize with him (note that he prefers masculine pronouns until further in the transition). 

The St. Petersburg Times scooped the story and has run most of the articles, including this lenghty one, which I thought was good (note the inclusion of Steve's wife's perspective) and this one about his communication plan (note the reference to Jillian Weiss).  The Times is Tampa Bay's liberal newspaper.

Tampa Bay's conservative newspaper is the Tampa Tribune.  Last week, it ran an editorial that said Stanton should be fired.  You might imagine my anger and annoyance at that article.

Today, they ran an article in the business section suggesting that if Steve had worked for business instead of the government, he might have been better off.  Maybe he would have been.  I don't know.  Whatever the outcome, his case has certainly brought substantial nationwide and world-wide attention to the issue.

The Tribune's Dave Simanoff interviewed me for its business article.  I've copied it below the fold for any of you that want to read it.  It included this picture, which was taken at the first anniversary party of the sale of my company.  The "trophy" is an award I was given by the (former) owner of the company in recognition of my contributions as Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Team.  Considering all that Steve's done for Largo, they should be giving him a trophy, too, and not firing him.

Business Finding Profit In Diversity

By DAVE SIMANOFF The Tampa Tribune

Published: Mar 23, 2007

Steve Stanton's employment saga might have turned out differently if he worked for corporate America.

Largo decided to fire the city manager after the public learned he is transgender and plans to begin the lengthy process of transitioning into a woman. On Feb. 27, by a vote of 5 to 2, the city commission voted to place him on paid leave and begin the process of firing him. A public hearing is scheduled for tonight, and Stanton is expected to appeal to the decision to fire him.

What happened in Largo contrasts sharply with what's happening in the business world, where an increasing number of companies are moving quickly to add gender identity to their antidiscrimination policies.

Today, one-fourth of all Fortune 500 companies include gender identity in their written nondiscrimination policies, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit organization based in Washington. That figure has risen dramatically from three years ago, when 7 percent of Fortune 500 companies could claim such a policy, and it is expected to continue growing.

What's behind the trend?

Mara Keisling, executive director for the National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, cites two reasons: First, businesses recognize the value of a diverse work force and want to recruit and retain talented workers; and second, transgender workers are speaking up and asking employers for equal protection.

When employees aren't worried about being fired for reasons not related to their workplace performance, they're more productive and effective, Keisling said.

Selisse Berry, executive director for Out & Equal Workplace Advocates in San Francisco, said that a diverse, inclusive workplace helps employers reach out to all kinds of prospective workers - not just those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

"A lot of companies are recognizing that, in a way, LGBT issues in general - that is, sexual orientation and gender identity - are kind of the litmus test for any progressive-minded person," she said. "They know that if those policies are in place that it's going to be a company that provides work-life balance and provides benefits for everyone."

Gender identity refers to how a person identifies him- or herself. Most men have a male gender identity; most women have a female gender identity. A transgender person's gender identity doesn't match the gender he or she was born with.

Denise Brogan-Kator knows firsthand what it's like to work for a company that discriminates against transgender workers.

Brogan-Kator recalls working as the vice president of finance for a medical products company in Pinellas County in the early 1990s. She said she was hired to help turn around the company, which was having such dire liquidity issues that it had problems making payroll.

At that time, Brogan-Kator went by the name David and presented herself as a man in the office. When the owner discovered Brogan-Kator was transgender, she was escorted from the office.

"I was there four or five years. Some months before he terminated me, he had written me a letter praising me and thanking me for having turned his company around," she said. "It made me feel like you would expect it would make me feel."

A Rough Landing

Brogan-Kator landed next with a software company in Tampa. "I told my boss that I was going to transition from male to female," she said. "He suggested I do it somewhere else."

Brogan-Kator eventually went to work as chief financial officer for Blue Ocean Software, a Tampa-based company that was purchased by Intuit in 2002 and later sold off to become Numara Software. Although she had legally changed her first name to Denise when she was hired at Blue Ocean, she applied for the job as David.

When she explained the different names to company founder Russ Hobbs, her boss, "he sort of dropped his jaw and said, 'What's that about?'" she said.

Then, Brogan-Kator said, "he said, 'I don't care about that. If you can do the job, that's what I care about.'"

Brogan-Kator still swells when she recalls that moment.

"For Russ to say that - truly, it's a cliche, but it was a breath of fresh air. It was, I thought, this is what life is supposed to be like," she said.

Brogan-Kator said she thrived at Blue Ocean Software, helping the company negotiate a large venture funding deal and then orchestrating the Intuit acquisition. She continued to present herself as David in the office, but when it became apparent the Intuit deal was going to close, she began the process of transitioning to a woman.

"By the time I left the company, my hair was at my shoulders and it was common knowledge," she said.

'Denise Did A Great Job'

Hobbs, who left Blue Ocean Software after the Intuit deal, said he has no regrets about hiring Brogan-Kator.

"I'm happy to say that our experience with Denise was only another example of a diverse individual doing an outstanding job and contributing towards the team's success," he said in an e-mail message. "Denise did a great job, and was well-liked and highly regarded by her co-workers as well as the banking and legal professionals with whom she interacted."

After leaving Intuit, Brogan-Kator enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School. She graduated in December and she and her partner, Mary Kator, intend to open a law firm that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in discrimination cases.

"It's something that I've always wanted to do after I got fired the first time," she said. "I went to a lawyer and asked how this could happen - how could he be firing me for something outside my scope of employment. He said, 'I'm sorry but that's just the way it is.' I was appalled."

At many companies, the question isn't whether to include gender identity in the nondiscrimination policy but how to craft those policies so transgender employees are treated fairly.

A written nondiscrimination policy is just a first step, said Keisling, of the National Center for Transgender Equality. Companies also must make sure they've got procedures in place for updating an employee's gender and first name in corporate records and to comply with medical privacy rules.

And, Keisling said, companies must be prepared to deal with one of the touchiest transgender issues of all: the bathroom issue.

Berry, of Out & Equal, said her organization suggests that employees use the bathroom for the gender that matches their outward appearance. Employees presenting themselves as women should use the women's room, and those presenting themselves as men should use the men's room.

If a company doesn't have a written antidiscrimination policy that covers gender identity, an employee has little recourse if he or she is fired for being transgender. Federal and state laws offer few protections, and only a handful of cities and counties across the country have laws protecting transgender people from employee discrimination.

Employment lawyer Theresa Gallion, a managing partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP in Tampa and Orlando, said she typically fields one call a week from a company concerned about a transgender employee.

"I'm happy to report that nine out of 10 times, the nature of the communication is, 'How do we accommodate this person?'" she said. "It's usually a long-term valued employee, and there are worries about boundary issues."

Keisling said she expects more employers to follow the example set by corporate America and not Largo.

"Employers are beginning to realize that people who are courageous enough to do this out in the open, like Mr. Stanton, are examples of the kind of employees they want," she said. "The kind of courage and focus and determination that Steve is showing are just remarkable characteristics in an employee."

Reporter Dave Simanoff can be reached at (813) 259-7762 or dsimanoff@tampatrib.com.

CORPORATE DIVERSITY'S LOCAL FACES

One-fourth of all Fortune 500 companies include gender identity in their corporate nondiscrimination policies. The list of local employers with gender identity nondiscrimination policies includes Tech Data Corp., the Clearwater-based company that distributes computers and electronic gear to companies around the world.

Other Fortune 500 companies with a local presence and gender identity nondiscrimination policies include:

?Financial services and insurance giants Bank of America Corp., Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., MetLife. and SunTrust Banks, which all maintain large operations centers in the Tampa Bay area.

?Retailers Best Buy Co., Borders Group, Gap, Nordstrom, Staples, Walgreens Co. and Sears Holding Corp. , which owns both Sears and Kmart department stores.

?Anheuser-Busch Cos., the owner of Busch Gardens in Tampa.

?AMR Corp. (parent company of American Airlines), Southwest Airlines Co., US Airways Group.

?Clear Channel Communications, owner of several Tampa Bay area radio stations, including WFLZ, 93.3 FM; WFLA, 970 AM; and WFUS, 103.5 FM.

?Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.

Source: Human Rights Campaign

Full post as published by Life, Law, Gender on March 23, 2007 (boomark / email).