Being Trans and Visible – Reflections on a year at work
Culture
The 31st March is Trans Day of Visibility, ‘TDoV’
for those of us in the community, and you may wonder, what is this day all
about? – To which the answer is ‘exactly what it says’ – it is about
Transgender people being visible, living their lives. It started as a response to the fact that
during a year of observances, trans people recognised (and still do) those
trans people lost to violent death and suicide every year (November 20th)
but we did not have a day celebrating our humanity and the contributions we
make to society.
Then something happened. On the 23rd March 2020 I found myself being the last person in the office in Corby – everyone else already having started to work from home for a ‘short period’. It was surreal, the business knew I was trans by this time of course, and in my ‘coming out’ message I had referenced that I had a ‘lot to do’ before people would see the real me every day; but in honesty, the 5 months of living a double life was getting really tough and when on the 24th March I came home knowing that the office was now closed I started to think about what survival and visibility really meant now.
To continue reading
Emily’s story, please click the link here.