Transgender advocate Diane Schroer spoke at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, Nov. 15.
Schroer is a highly decorated former Army special operations officer who had the offer of a terrorism research analyst position rescinded by the Library of Congress based on her plan to transition from male to female.
“The job description could have been written out of my resume; it was a perfect fit,” she said.
She told the Center on Halsted audience that, after the job offer was firm, she moved up a scheduled surgery so that she could begin the job as Diane and minimize the reaction among would-be co-workers. She said that she also arranged to meet in advance with the person who would have been her supervisor to advise in good faith that the transition was coming.
“The next day I received a hectic call saying that the decision had been reached that I didn’t after all meet their needs,” she said.
Her first thought was to live with the disappointment. As time went on, though, the offense of being told by someone who had not endured the trials of military service that she was no longer qualified to serve the federal government, began to gall.
“I’m normally the quiet professional but this was a clear injustice and I made inquiries.” She gives credit to the American Civil Liberties Union for helping her see the possible ramifications of her case and to step up.
The ACLU has a second primary mission of educating the public. Her case would increase public understanding of variations in gender identity but would make her private work with self-identity a very public matter.
“My ambition was to be a little analyst at the Library of Congress and pay the rent. Next thing, I’m talking to a producer at 20-20.”
In September 2008, a federal judge ruled that the Library head discriminated on the basis of sex when it refused to honor the job offer. The ruling did not result in her working at the Library of Congress, however, since the library continued to refuse to consider employment and that option had been removed from the table early on. Throughout the case, according to Schroer, the greatest support came from former military co-workers who believed that skill and experience should be the most important considerations in federal hiring for anti-terrorism related fields.