Trans at Work

A Legacy of Kindness - Telling the Story of Trans Charity GIRES

This episode, ‘Trans at Work’, looks at trans people in employment, and how the charity’s efforts have sought to change patterns of discrimination.

Being trans at work has historically been difficult, sometimes even impossible. The extent of discrimination brought up in the interviews might be surprising, but this stemmed from a lack of employment rights. Over time, employment rights for trans people were gradually acquired and confirmed through a number of court cases. GIRES itself was in large part born out of Bernard and Terry Reed’s involvement with their own daughter’s employment discrimination case against Chessington World of Adventures in 1997. Within this difficult environment of job insecurity, GIRES worked to combat workplace ignorance, producing training resources for employers. Trans employment research was funded by the charity including Professor Stephen Whittle’s report on a 2000 survey on trans employment discrimination.

Yet, in spite of the work done, continued efforts to combat workplace discrimination remain vital.