Dear Transgender OPSEU/SEFPO members and community partners,
OPSEU/SEFPO’s Rainbow Alliance arc-en-ciel (RAA) is looking for your feedback!
The RAA is in the process of creating a transition guide for union members. The guide is intended to help transgender people to navigate aspects of their transition related to the workplace and provide helpful information to employers and union reps.
Your lived experience and feedback on the material would be greatly appreciated.
Transitioning in the workplace can be a big step in living openly as your full, authentic self. It can offer many benefits such as freedom to express your gender, support from your colleagues and increased confidence. Many transgender and non-binary people wish to transition while maintaining safety, comfort, and healthy professional development.
The Zoom feedback session will take place in February 2022. The date is to be determined.
If you are a trans OPSEU/SEFPO member or community member interested in joining a Zoom feedback session, please email equity@opseu.org no later than January 31, 2022.
If you have any questions regarding the guide or Zoom session, please email equity@opseu.org.
In Solidarity,
OPSEU/SEFPO Rainbow Alliance arc-en-ciel
Transgender is an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.
Gender identity is each person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex
Gender expression refers to the way a person communicates gender identity to others through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics.
“Trans” is sometimes used as shorthand for “transgender.” While transgender is generally a good term to use, not everyone whose appearance or behavior is gender-nonconforming will identify as a transgender person. The ways that transgender people are talked about in our communities are constantly changing, particularly as individuals’ awareness, knowledge and openness about transgender people and their experiences grow.
Non-binary is an identity embraced by some people who do not identify exclusively as a man or a woman. Non-binary people may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between or as falling completely outside of these categories. While many also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do. Non-binary can also be used as an umbrella term encompassing identities such as agender, bigender, genderqueer or gender fluid.
References:
Ontario Human Rights Commission: Gender Identity and Gender Expression
National Centre for Transgender Equality: Understanding Non-Binary People: How to be Respectful & Supportive
American Psychological Association: Transgender People, Gender Identity and Gender Expression