We Are Everywhere!

I used to work for a large multinational engineering company and when I came out to HR she jokingly said she got to check-off two boxes on their diversity statement. Engineering is notoriously a male dominated field and now there is a push to change that with an accent on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math ) programs for women.

It is not surprising to find trans-people in STEM fields because of many reasons and I think one of them for us to hide in a masculine field.

Transgender Lockheed Martin engineer receives top LGBT award
By Laura Keeney
The Denver Post
POSTED:   11/09/2014

Christine Bland's fingerprints are on several major deep-space missions from the last decade.

She's worked on NASA's Juno and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions, among others, as an engineer at Lockheed Martin. Since 2009, she's led Lockheed's team developing the electronic hardware on NASA's Orion spacecraft.

Three years ago, she transitioned into what she calls her "true authentic self" — changing from living as a man named Ricky to living her life as a woman.

Bland was recognized Saturday as the 2014 LGBT engineer of the year by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, or NOGLSTP.

Where I worked it was not always trans-friendly, a woman in the support group that I attended was fired from the same company a dozen years before I came out and she could never find a job in engineering again. Other engineers from that era also had a hard time when they transitioned and those who are unemployment now find it hard to get a foot in the door. It seems like companies welcome their employees who transition on the job but if you are not employed and are looking for a job good luck. When it boils down to hiring two engineers with the same talent the job goes to the cisgender candidate.