ORLANDO – One of the most prestigious conferences for LGBT business people will head to Orlando, Oct. 5-7.
The Out & Equal Workplace Summit, hosted at the Disney Swan and Dolphin hotels, has a clear message: “Marriage isn’t the end; we need to be certain that we don’t lose our jobs after our weekend wedding just because we are LGBT.”
With more than 3,000 people expected to attend – from corporations like Dell, IBM, Comcast Universal, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Wells Fargo and Disney – the conference promises to inspire and inform those who are looking to press forward with equal rights in the workplace.
Bank of America, which has been there since the beginning two decades ago, has been a driving force in pushing what would seem to be a common-sense agenda. Transgender woman Tricia Russell, 59, knows and appreciates the struggle for rights. She’s lived them: first as Patrick, now as Tricia.
“Like all transgender people, I was born transgender and I will die transgender,” Russell, a vice president in the bank’s global risk department, says. “It was a very difficult process, a gut-wrenching process.”
Tricia grew up Catholic and found less acceptance from her parents than she does from her employers.
“As my mom put it, my wanting to be a girl was an insult to God,” she says. “My father was physically and emotionally abusive.”
Initially her transition went smoothly. A member of the bank’s human resources department spoke with her about the matter.
“He said, ‘Tricia, I want you to know this: You’re going to have struggles,’” she recalls. “’We are not only OK with you transitioning at Bank of America, we encourage it. Also, by the way, there are other transitioning people on staff.’ His message was, ‘I can’t pretend to be someone I am not.’”
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is a nonprofit that joins Fortune 1,000 companies in an effort to chisel away at discrimination. The conference is both an educational and a networking opportunity for fair-minded businesspeople promoting workplace equality.
“I honestly will tell you, I’ve worked my tail off all of my life, and it was important for me to achieve all that I could achieve,” Russell says.
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