Pride and Productivity
One of my favorite experiences took place in San Francisco in the ‘90s where I was attending a conference. I was at a club or a bar, I can’t remember which, having a blast after the conference ended for the day.
At one point I had to go to the bathroom. When I finished my business and was washing my hands, I realized I was the only cisgender woman in the bathroom. So I did the only thing I could think to do.
I joked around as we all reapplied some makeup in the mirror, and then headed back to the main room to have more fun. (The only thing I was angry about was that their boobs were bigger than mine.)
Being yourself makes you much more productive
A friend of mine who’s a trans man told me that he’s happy every day because he looks in the mirror and his insides match his outsides. I thought he might be trans before he told me, but I didn’t ask because a) I’m not the gender police and b) I knew it would take a little time for him to feel safe enough with me to mention it.
If your insides match your outsides and you’ve never had this issue, take a minute to think about what it must be like to look in the mirror and feel like you’re constantly wearing a mask. The entire day, part of your brain has to be dedicated to performing the “right” gender expression. That is a lot of work, and it’s constant when you feel like you have to hide.
When you’re not able to express your true self, because your family might disown you, or someone might physically attack you.
It’s not just trans people who are at risk of attack, unfortunately. I’m intentionally leaving out details here, but someone I know was at Pride with his husband and child and was attacked by a white cis man who was upset that he saw a gay couple with a baby.
Apparently this homophobe also called Child Protective Services. Fortunately, CPS checked it out and recognized the couple posed no danger to the child. The actual danger was the unhinged man who had an opinion about something that was absolutely none of his business.
I just read today that something similar happened to Pete Buttigieg. He and his husband were also accused of child endangerment and reported. Fortunately for him, they realized it was probably a political piece of BS and dropped the matter.
Being a safe person for trans or queer people is a huge benefit for business owners. You’ve probably seen the stats about how companies with diversified boards perform better. That’s because when you have diverse backgrounds, you get more ideas and less groupthink.
And when all your staff feels safe with you and don’t have to perform being something they’re not, they’re going to be more productive.
Don’t be gaslit about trans issues
White conservative cisgender men claim that women, especially white women, like me need “protection”. Which is why some of them have no problem actually entering women’s bathrooms in order to accuse or castigate a woman who seems insufficiently feminine to them.
I, like most women I know, would much rather be in the bathroom with trans women and/or masculine-looking women than a cis man claiming to be protective, because these men are unhinged and dangerous. Trans women and lesbians are a hell of a lot safer to be around.
There’s no such thing as transgender “mutilization”, which isn’t even a word. And no, your kindergartner is not able to have sex reassignment surgery at school.
Children are not getting surgery for trans issues. I am aware that there are a whole lot of mouth breathers who claim this is a thing. Nor are kids identifying as cats and using litter trays for bathrooms. If you actually believed any of these absolutely ridiculous stories, I invite you to pull your head out of your ass and hang it in shame.
There are drugs that block or delay puberty, and they have been used for decades. The GLP-1 drug you’re taking hasn’t been around as long as the puberty blockers have. Cis kids get them for a variety of reasons, and they’re safe for most trans kids too. (All drugs have side effects, so miss me with your fearmongering over these drugs.)
Another bonkers claim is the “get men out of women’s sports” thing. For one thing, there are vanishingly few trans athletes in the NCAA. For another, there is a great way to support women in women’s sports, and that is paying women athletes as much as the men.
If you don’t support women athletes being paid like men, then you don’t actually give a shit about women’s sports and need to shut the fuck up. (My, the mouth on me when I’m really irritated!)
Trans people really just want to live their lives. They’re not trying to do anything to your children, or to you. Yes, trans people have always been with us, even if you think it’s a recent phenomenon. Many indigenous peoples have a tradition of a third gender in addition to male and female.
Not to mention that human biology is a lot more complicated than “XX chromosomes = girl and XY = boy”.
If you have a religious objection to trans people, well, how do you know that your deity didn’t make them trans on purpose? You claim your deity is all-knowing, which means that the deity already knows the person is trans.
Why are you interfering with your deity’s work? Maybe you should stop looking for people to punish and read your book again, which explicitly directs you to take care of the poor and foreigners who come to your country.
Allowing self-expression can help boost productivity in the workplace
Some of us have been masking for a long time, for one reason or another.
Maybe we were hiding our sexuality or gender expression.
Maybe we came from a rabidly critical home environment where love was conditional on high performance.
Maybe we’re neurodivergent and were trying to fit in with the neurotypicals.
Maybe we were playing small because we were people pleasers.
Maybe we cared too much about what other people think about us.
Maybe it’s a combination of these and other factors.
When we’re able to unmask, we also free up more brain space. Even if the masking is automatic because we’ve been doing it for so long, it still takes up brain processing power. Sometimes the masking is mental, but it can also be physical – wearing classic or conservative clothing, avoiding tattoos or piercings, for example.
There may be some industries where you feel pressure, as a business owner, to have your staff look a certain way to clients. Perhaps by wearing conservative clothing, avoiding tattoos/piercings, etc.
Is it worth it to ask your team members to wear different clothes, cover up their tattoos, take out their piercings?
If you’re not sure, consider how often your staff meets with clients. If they’re usually behind the scenes, do they need to conform? If you only have a few clients who are old-fashioned, are they worth the discomfort of your staff? One of the benefits of being your own boss is that you can fire clients at will.
I know business owners who have visible tattoos and piercings, because that’s their way to express themselves and they are not going to hide for anyone. If a prospective client is upset about this, they’re probably not a good fit anyway.
When you and your team members allow your freak flags to fly, you might just find that prospects actually look forward to doing business with people who are being their authentic selves right out in public.
In this AI-forced hellscape we’re living in, more and more people want authenticity. Because otherwise you might as well be a bot.
Recap (tl;dr):
Don’t be a dick about trans and queer issues. Not during Pride month, nor the rest of the year. Not only is this the morally correct thing to do to prevent people from being dehumanized, but allowing people to be their true selves makes for a more productive and attractive workplace.
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