 Anyway, so I'm here from the San Francisco LGBT Center, and I'm with the Trans Employment Program. And we'll be talking about trans and thriving in the workplace today. Thank you all for coming in. And here's our agenda for today. So we'll go over introductions that includes you. Who is TEP, or what is the Trans Employment Program and how can we serve you? What's your dream today and why it matters? We'll talk a little bit about that. Five important tools we want to share with you and we'll talk about some barriers to overcome. And then we'll take questions and answers and I'll give answers and know that of course you can ask questions as we go along. Because the group is small, I'm going to try to keep a mellow pace because usually when it's bigger it takes longer. So let me know if I'm going too fast. So that's me and my name is Fresh White and I'm a certified co-active coach. That's what my CPCC stands for and I'm Employment Specialist. So I use my tools as a coach to help people live their dreams, achieve their goals, practice the things that help them get where they're going. Somebody had asked me before if I was, so I'm a speaker. I've been doing trainings in San Francisco and Marin since 2003, mostly in schools but also in government agencies, universities and corporations. A little bit about us and what we offer. So one-on-one counseling services. We make up appointments. I was telling Pee once we get you set up and we'll figure out how to make that happen. We can actually talk on the phone during your lunchtime or something or at 5.30 or something or 8.30 depending where your schedule is. So we offer one-on-one counseling, just checking with individuals, finding out what they're looking for and what's blocking them. The job readiness assistance includes helping you create and or review resumes, cover letters. Well, let me back up a second because actually what we like to do is review the resume. For people who don't have resumes, we generally refer them to come to the library to create your resume. They have tools online and we really don't even have the capacity but we will review once you've started creating it. Same goes for cover letters. There are tools here at the library to help you create one. We will help review it for you and in particular help you shape one to fit the job that you're looking for. And we offer mock interviews. So if you're like, I'm going to apply for a job tomorrow and I'm scared to answer these questions. We'll do mock interviews with you and there's more. We have Work It, which is a professional life and job skills workshop, particularly for trans and gender queer individuals. And this workshop, we do a lot of focusing on being both our authentic selves, accepting and really loving and honoring our authentic selves and how to be with the general public as we're transitioning because there can be a lot of trauma and stuff that comes up. And what's ours and what's theirs and how to negotiate always being our best. And then on the bottom is the employer competency trainings. The center, I do them through the center. So the ones that I mentioned, through the center I mostly do with government agencies and we've done a couple of corporations. And then I already talked about how I do other trainings both actually now in the East Bay as well. So, do you have a dream? I'm wondering if people could share a little bit maybe of what is it that you would be doing if money was not an object? Thank you, thank you, Kerry. No, I have a, since we have time I wanna read this. So I found this online yesterday. Do you have a dream? Turning dreams into reality. I have big dreams and I have no doubt that you do too. I also realized that there are many things and some big things that need to be done in order to make the dream a reality. As I learned to learn and grow I realized that I will not be able to accomplish the goals and make the dream a reality if I'm not really committed. Commitment takes guts. It might be easy to dream but making it a reality takes hard work. It is hard to fight against the resistance. Hard to say no to certain people and also hard to hear others say no to you. But again, if making dreams a reality was an easy thing then everybody would be doing it. Since someone has to do it, why not you? Why not do a hard thing? Why not make a commitment to press through and fight the resistance to see the dream become a reality? Lack of commitment is the biggest reason for not getting things done. It is the reason we don't accomplish the things that we set out to do. It is the reason we give up when we face the resistance. It really doesn't matter where the resistance and pressure comes from. Fight it with everything you have because on the other side is the reality of the dream you have been dreaming about. Yesterday or this morning I was listening to I should know his name the guy who owns Virgin America who was also talking about the importance of failure and why you just, that's part of what I like to say to people is like if you can walk, you've failed. Because you didn't just pop up and start walking. If you can read, you've failed, right? So the truth is we're not getting anything done without failing. It's just that there are certain things that we seem to be more afraid of failing at. But we couldn't tie our shoes if we didn't fail, right? Everything actually that we do well we did through persistence, commitment and practice. Hi there, I'm Fresh and welcome to the training. Great, nice to meet you. So we're talking about the dream and the question I asked was do you have a dream? And what I'd like to ask P and Jason to do is we heard Carrie like really extrapolate on her dream, right? And so if you can take it a little bit bigger this part about commitment actually gets a lot easier. So can you two maybe whoever wants to go first P you talked about wanting to travel, right? And the surgery was something that you wanted to get out but your dream was to travel and you said sort of work but you didn't know what. And I'm curious like why couldn't you do both? What if your work was travel? So if you can extrapolate allow yourself to talk a little bit more about what your dream looks like. Oh yeah, I mean I think that's a lot of our plans, right? I still have that fantasy of like having something like that. So there's something about you knowing what you want in order to sort of be able to focus, do some focus but also be able to call some support in, right? Cause you don't have to do it alone. None of it has to happen alone. So the five tools we talked about were one is to have a goal or a dream. And one of the practices that I recommend for people is A, writing it whenever you can, write it down. And you can write it and leave it or you can write it and save it, collect it, whatever you want to do. If you can find someone, so friends that are the positive friends, right? There's, you know, we have two kinds of friends. The friends are like, no you can't do that, that's not possible. We try not to share our dreams with them but the people who are sort of achieving things and getting things done, finding people that you can share your dreams and go with who are at the very least gonna hear you even if they can't promote you but hopefully they will help support you. The other part is to be confident in you and what comes to mind at the moment is like everybody knows Prince, right? And one of the things that I appreciated about him the most, cause I listened to some of his music since the 90s but I wasn't like a big fan but what I really appreciated about him was that he didn't let anybody determine who he was gonna be. So he got to be like this outlandish, like African, American rock and roll, every kind of music person wearing funky clothes and I believe, and he was in a religion that's kind of strict and I forgot which one it was but the point being that he was himself and it's being yourself that I don't know, I think for me, if I was trying to be somebody else I wouldn't be here, like I'm gonna fail at that. Another way of saying that is that you've got unique gifts, you're not homeless anymore, right, and you both have ideals and dreams and you got yourself here. Remember that like as you go forward. The other part is to be prepared. So being prepared and when we're looking for work or like Jason was saying, fourth floor for small business, like Prince was saying, doing, connecting with people around health services and going back to school if you want to in addition to getting some coaching help which is what you've been asking for and of course Carrie is repeatedly taking care of herself and updating her resumes and moving forward so that she's ready to take on the next opportunity, right? Sometimes that opportunity is big bike rides up to Marin. Yeah, not currently, but actually to Marin. Yeah, so finding a mentor ally might not be your friend. It might be somebody at the library or somebody in your community, someone who is doing, someone who's successful and that you can touch is the way I want to put it. So it's great to have mentors. I definitely have mentors like Tavis Smiley is one of my mentors, right? But he doesn't know who I am but I still get to see what he's doing and what about him do I want to emulate but also having a mentor down on the ground? Who are the people around me or in my community that I can maybe tap into who is going to help support me as I try to move forward with my goals and dreams? So and then knowing your rights I actually brought a couple of things. Do you have any questions about any of these so far? Yes. Only because it's on there. I'm assuming I know what it means but if you say be prepared I'm going to guess for some of the stuff that you put down over here and for becoming this kind of stuff and not being switched up when somebody throws them something that's just unkind or a little bit questionable if you want or something when you're out and about and then being professionally prepared for the actual job that you're being engaged in? Thank you, that's a great question. So yes, prepared for the job that you're engaging in but also being prepared to take the next step in your goal. So doing your homework, figuring out what that is finding out your resources, figure out what that is because what happens once you have a goal and you're confident about it is opportunities start showing up. They really do, it really is like magic. And so you want to be, this leads a little bit into another conversation that Kariya and I have had. We have been the work it program that I mentioned. We do like a couple of weeks of talking about self-confidence, self-esteem. As trans people we can really get wrapped up in worried about what other people are thinking about us or what they're seeing, right? As African-American males we might have a little stress happening sometimes when we're walking down streets or even people of color or gender, right? Everybody has something. And so if you can figure out how to manage that or be aware of when that's coming up you can also be prepared for any opportunity that comes your way. So this one, this one is not exactly legal stuff but I do want you to know your rights and one of the things that comes up a lot for trans folks is I don't have any references. What do I do about that? Everybody knows me and my formal name. And so one of the things that we like to emphasize is that you don't have to have, if you had three jobs in the last year and you're worried that somebody on that job is not gonna respect you or you won't get any respectful references go to friends, go to counselors and use them as references. So I'm a reference for people, that kind of thing. The other thing is, and I'm gonna pass this out and then we'll talk a little bit more about rights in general. So what is your, what's the law on resume, on filling out a resume and job applications should be covered in here? And basically you have the right to use your chosen name when applying for jobs and on your resume. Not a problem. And I do want to write something on the board. Let's say that your chosen name is let's just go easy. Your chosen name is Mary and you keep your last name but your legal name is Michael, right? So what you would do, everybody following me so far, your legal name is Michael. So this is the name that can go on your resume. Everybody know what a resume is, right? It's the form that you sent in before. This is the name that goes on your job application and I'll tell you why. Because on the bottom of your job application, anybody seen that part on the bottom where it says I swear that everything's legal and binding, whatever, right? This is your legal name. This is the same as putting M bud, right? So people have nicknames, right? They put Robert, they might put our Bob means that this is the preferred name that they want to be called. That's all it means. Does that make sense to you? So any questions on this? So unless you're signing something that says I swear that this is my name, you can use this anytime. Once you do that, you can use this. So when they say then are there any other names that you've ever gone by on the bottom? Sometimes they have that on resumes. Then that name would be no need to. Lots of people use first initials. Now question, how would this be acceptable for a background check? Because when they do that background check, M stands for Michael and Smith is there. So M is legally, it doesn't say, unless it says spell out your first name, you can use your first initials. Lots of people only use initials, right? A, K, Tolkien, there are people who use initials for names. So if you for, but if for example, this was different and your name was Frank, right? And you put, and you didn't put Frank. You know, if you put M, because you're putting Mary, you'd be in trouble then because they're really like, where, you know, who's Frank, where's Frank? But M should satisfy. And that, this, I've been training, teaching this along with the Transgender Law Center for the last three years, so. And but this should not be unfamiliar to people that you have like the name I wanna be called. Bob, Becky, you know, instead of Jess, instead of Jessica. So San Francisco has an anti-discrimination law that includes perceived gender. So I think that it says gender or gender identity. So you can't be, you're not supposed to be turned down for a job because of that. Right now in San Francisco, there should, I believe that there's a bathroom law, that I keep going back and forth on, but if you're in your job, actually that's true. So while you're working in your office, they're not allowed to send you down the hall and to two buildings over to use a restroom because everything else is binary. They're supposed to be able to accommodate you within your office space. In, you know, to certain degrees, some buildings can't do it, but you can look into that. It is your right to be, for your gender to be used at work. So if, for example, your transition network and your supervisor refuses to use your name or refuses to use your correct pronoun, those are things that you can actually contact the Trentian Law Center about to get support or HR about to get support. But it is your right to be seen that way. And then we got it, have a goal. So, and maybe I'll share, I can email more about rights. I didn't bring in more right stuff. So employment challenges. We talked a little bit about 90% of Trent's identified individuals experience unemployment. 16% go to underground economy and that's everything from bouncing to drugs to sex work. And unemployment is two times, to four times the national average for people of color. Plus, we experienced discrimination in housing and lack of resources for job preparedness. And we'll talk about some of that. And this is the study that it's for. This presentation will be online later so you can look it up. So never give up. You probably can't see this. So we talked about having a dream and having a goal and one of the things I wanted to point out, did anybody, everybody knows Sylvester Stallone, right? I don't know if he's on this list, but it was, there he is, 1,500 rejects for the film Rocky. Right? 1,500 rejects. Does anybody know about the film Rocky, right? They made like five, 10, you know. He sold his dog at the corner store because he had to pay his rent. He sold his dog and within a month he got his first contract and bought the dog back. But he sold it at the corner store. Everybody knows Harry Potter. For some reason this person doesn't list a lot of women, but Harry Potter, I think it was 63 rejects, something like that, upwards of that. 63 times she kept sending her book in. Imagine getting all these letters in the mail going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and just keep putting it out. Talk about commitment, right? We can see if she made a series, didn't she? She made a series. She's like a, probably a billionaire by now. Not to mention it's good stuff. It's good stuff that people weren't ready, whoever was looking at it wasn't ready for it. Richard Brunson, he's the man that I mentioned earlier, I was listening to him this morning and he started the Virgin, oh, so here's his rocket, right? So the guy who created Virgin Airlines also created a rocket. So it looks like 400 times before he founded one that would leave the atmosphere. Right, and he's the guy that said keep failing and so when the guy who owns Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Phones, and Virgin Rockets says that failure's part of the game, you know, it's something we may want to pay attention to. All right, I'll read some of these. Colonial Sanders, colonel, right, would however you say that, started KFC, he was turned down a thousand and nine times when he tried selling his chicken recipe. I'm just like, for me I'm just like, because I don't know if I have this kind of tenacity, right? But that's because they really believed in it and they wanted to make it happen. 525,000 times for the Dyson guy who does, he's one of the first ones that has the hand dryers, but he's been doing vacuums and fans forever. 5,000 times he had to give it a try. 10,000 times Edison, we may all know that he was blown up labs left and right. So let's talk also a little bit about, because I think everybody I mentioned up here is a white male and that matters a little bit. The woman who, the person who wrote Harry Potter was a single mom and was riding on the train back and forth to work, right? We've heard stories, one of my mentor speakers, Les Brown, African-American male, went from poverty, being born to a drug mother, adopted into a big family and is one of the top speakers in the United States, right? So it's possible, so it's possible. We don't close our eyes to the fact that there are challenges, but we also decide how we're gonna be with those challenges. Does that make sense, right? You can have two people in a basketball court, for example, one of them is gonna be training day and night and the other one's gonna be training a couple of times a week. And the chances are the one that's training day and night are gonna be hitting more baskets, it's just the way it goes. That's why these people, that's why there aren't a hundred people who are doing this. It's just like a few of us, a few people, us. Yes, I wanna include myself in that at some point. Any questions, any doubts that come up? Cause now's a great time to say, here's why I doubt I can do it, so I can knock it down. Yeah, I was more excited about that. So here's some more faces. Because again, there are discriminations, there's no doubt, and there are people who make it, right? So Laverne Cox, right? Orange is the new black, right? And she will, she shared her story, it was struggle, it wasn't always easy. And she may have some class stuff, so we pay attention to that too, right? But we don't let it block us. Cause I know sometimes in some of our heads we'll go, well yeah, well they had parents or they had money and they had this and they had that. Well there are people who didn't have all of that and succeeded as well. Kyla Brotus, yes, Brotus, this is him, speaking in front of Congress and he's spoken in front of the center. He's a Harvard lawyer, he transitioned at Harvard, Howard, and it was hard. It was really hard on him. I know him. This guy, anybody know Courtney? Yeah, Courtney, right? He lives in the Bay Area. He came out a few years back. Dr. Courtney Ryan Zegler, he started something called Transcode. So a coding project for transgender individuals and they had coding contests and he did one in Oakland a few years back and trans people created things like where to find transgender bathrooms. So there's an application called refuge bathrooms or something like that, something like that. And people designed places to find and share clothing online and other different kind of mapping things. But he's taken it global, right? Also, I believe he's also working class. We know Janik Mock, right? Everybody know who she is. She started out as People Magazine. I don't know if she transitioned in the job but she was one of the People Magazine editors. She has a TV show. She had like some big wedding where everybody on TV like she's one of those people. And then Teresa Sparks is one of the people who has made it possible for trans genders to be trans folks, to be where we are today in San Francisco. She's been doing tireless work and I don't remember which department she is but she does work for San Francisco department. Sorry, I probably didn't have, I had had no coffee today. So my memory's off. Number 50, basketball player transitioned a few years ago. Any questions? Oprah, this is from, I believe this is like in the late, it wouldn't have been like 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, it's a trans man who decided to have, who kept his organs and decided to have a baby. Yeah, yeah, that's how, yeah, they used to call him that, yeah. And so that continues to happen today, right? And you know, transparent, wow. Whether we like the show or not, this person is a respected actor and millions of people have seen what it's like for an older person to transition with their family. Family's kind of crazy, the show's a little crazy, but still, you know, we wouldn't have had this on TV 20 years ago. Oh, so questions, answers, shares. Pay attention to what it was making me feel like in some research. I would have probably been behind somebody bars a day. Almost got an accident, I had to stop drinking alcohol because with the old Reese, it's easier to maintain alcohol without the old Reese, while I was just drinking, drinking, drinking. Next thing I know, it'd hit me at once and if it ain't my way, it's even my way to high blood. And then after that, yeah, this is crazy. Almost got an accident in my life. I'm good, and I'm so blessed. Yeah, keep the human next to me every step of the way. So you know it's manageable? Definitely manageable. And you got your spiritual support. Yeah, you just got the attention of what's making you feel like you said, the confidence. And a little bit, we do share, we have a Friday job club that we mostly is on self-esteem confidence, right? And then we have a job club that is more technical, so about resumes and how to get a job. And in both job clubs, I mostly do the Friday one, but I talk about mindfulness. Being aware, like you're saying, what am I feeling now? What do I need right now? And being able to attend to yourself and be able to get support when you need it. I hope you connect with me in your process of applying. That would be great, yeah, good. Jason, you don't have anything to share? But I do have a question. I don't know if it's related or not, but when I first came out here to San Francisco, I tried to do housing, and I had already changed my name. And when they ran my background, they said that my whole background was white clean. You know, I have the same social security. I don't know if that's like discrimination or what that was. No, it depends on what kind of, did you change your name and your gender? Yes, I did. So I'm still learning about this, but supposedly when you change your gender, they wipe everything out. It's hard for me to believe, but that's when you wanna call the Transgender Law Center. I'm gonna have to do the same thing to get the information and find out, because it doesn't really make sense to me, but you're the second person to tell me that. It's called the Transgender Law Center. The Transgender Law Center, T-L-C dot O-R-G. And you can give them a call or send them an email and ask them a question. Or I have some cards, email me, and I'll be sure to talk. I have to talk to them this week anyway. So since we have a couple more minutes, I'd love to know what your next steps are. Okay, are you working now? I was, but I'm on medical leave because I also have chronic illness. Okay. But at the same time, I had a hard time working because I wasn't feel comfortable with my top and everything. So it was like, I was having a lot of anxiety, even though everybody accepted me as male around me. At the same time, I just felt that people knew and I felt like people, they were telling, managers was telling something, and it probably wasn't even going on, it was just going on in my head. And I just wanna feel comfortable with my body. That's life number one for me right now. Are you seeing a counselor? I'm not, but I really should be. Should is, I try not to put that in my vocabulary. The thing is that like P was saying, counseling and talking to someone who can help guide you or listen is not about being crazy. Crazy is like all of us are a little crazy. All of us walk over homeless people and have to do this every day. It makes us a little, it causes us stress. The latest news is causing people stress and being able to share whether it's the news or whether it's our transition or whether it's getting through blocks and being able to talk with someone that we can trust about it is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself. It's healthy. I'm gonna show you something real quick. I should be able to get it up fairly fast. Let's see. Being able to hear other people talk about their experiences transitioning and what they go through and their insecurities actually can be really healing. And some of these folks actually live in the area. So it's not just anybody but people that you might be able to meet shortly in the future. Do you have volume? If you can't do it, it's okay. We should be able to. We should be able to. So these speakers are just kind of cranky and old. Yeah. That part we got. In the meanwhile, while they're doing that, any other questions you have for me? I think a report came out recently that said something like 1.2 nationally. 1.2 million, I think. 1 million? You heard it. It's not 10%. It's not 10% of trans. 10% is the number we used to throw around for the gay number. Oh, that's a lot. The other thing I wanted to say was that transitioning is at the end, right? And it's important to know that. It sounds like you're still getting support. I get support at the time a lot through YouTube, TED Talks, or some motivational talks. And it's important to note that while we hear about, you know, every year we hear about all the trans murders and they're primarily around trans women of color, that 30 to 55% of trans men are committing attempting suicides. So it's also a silent thing. So if you do know or meet trans guys that are having trouble assisting them with getting help, because 46% are African American and 55% are Latin and Native American. And that's a high attempt to rate, right? And that's only what's reported. So I just wanted to add that. In closing, please, you have my card now. You can go to the website, the transgender employment program website. But yeah, so you know how to reach out here. You have now met Danya, if you haven't met her before. She can tell you about other resources in addition to the business program that she's running. And are you a resource for us? Yes, I am. Tell us about it. I would give you my business card, but the city and county of San Francisco have a program that supports diversity in all different type of ways. I am the designated recruiter for that. And just kind of going out and educating people. We have tons of positions that many people, diversity, want to enter into. And they get the, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't even say step up, but I've made it in a way where they don't have to compete against other people. So you should be allowed, we do require an exam in order for many of our positions. And with this program that I'm supporting, you do not need to take the exam. You are allowed to give it an interview. I mean, give it a chance to sell yourself. Wow, okay. That seems to be very big, especially for our community, because a lot of people feel as if they have to compete and we've been able to break that bridge and barrier down for a lot of people. That's great. Yeah, the competition is this hard because we have, especially at this time, so many privileged people in town. It's really hard to compete with them. Somebody told me recently that, I guess up until the 60s, San Francisco was 40% African-American. Yeah. 40%. When I got here in 91, it was 14, and now it's 0.3. So that's a wonderful opportunity that you're providing for both the African-Americans but also the whole diverse group. Questions, any other questions? So I hope to hear from everybody. Thank you for coming out. Hopefully, I'll come back in the future and we'll double or triple the size. Okay, yes. Well, I work part-time as an employment specialist and then I work another full-time job as a life coach and career coach. Outside of, I have my own business as a coach and my own business as a trainer. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Fresh. Right on, yes, thanks. And feel free to follow me on Facebook. I tend to write inspiring things. They tell me. All right, cool. I'm gonna turn this off.