California launches employment program for transgender people
California has because the first American state to launch an employment program for transgender people.
LGBTQ Nation reports that the aim of the program is to combat the unemployment epidemic for transgender people which is twice the rate faced by other Americans.
Los Angeles LGBT Centre’s Drian Juarez spoke to the Southern California Public Radio and said, “Trans people are vulnerable when we come into the workplace.”
“If somebody makes fun of us, we may not have the wherewithal to stand up for ourselves because we don’t want to jeopardise our jobs.”
The California Workforce Development Board has offered a to pay owners and managers the first 60 hours of a new hire’s wage with $150,000 grant.
Michaela Mendelsohn, a transgender woman and owner of six South California El Pollo Loco restaurants, is at the head of the movement.
She believed that around 8 to 10% of her 150 employees are trans and, until she hired her first transgender employee in 2012, she was the only transgender person in her restaurants.
Mendelsohn has decided that more needs to be done to help transgender people in employment and hopes the new movement will do just that.
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