Trans people are one of the groups that encounter the most difficulties when it comes to finding a job, according to the study on the labor insertion of this group of the Ministry of Equality, according to which 46.5% of this population group is unemployed . The Business Network for LGBTI Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) and the Embassy of the Netherlands have organized an event this Thursday to request “policies that favor the diversity and real labor inclusion of this group”, organized on the occasion of the International Day of Trans Visibility, which will be held tomorrow, Friday, March 31.
“The business world and society in general have a pending issue with the acceptance and visibility of trans people at work”, they have highlighted from REDI, an association that points out the complexity of a group “very diverse in terms of socioeconomic situation, degree training, previous work experience, ethnicity and other variables”.
One of the main reasons for this low occupancy rate is discrimination. According to data from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, 42% of Spanish trans people say they have felt discriminated against during their job search processes or in their work environment.
Valeria Paola Flores, a trans activist who gave her testimony at the event this Thursday, has experienced it firsthand. She now works in the offices of the French group April in Madrid, but before that she had to overcome a “long and anguishing” job search process that lasted years and forced her to ask for help from humanitarian organizations.
“There are days when everything is very dark and you do not see the light. It is very difficult. You knock on doors and they tell you that they are going to call you, but they never do and you stay on the street. That rejection that you receive and again it destabilizes you emotionally and psychologically ”, he related.
Cristina Rubio, the mother of a 17-year-old trans boy, who is concerned about the “double barrier” her son faces in the workplace: “being young and being trans”, also participated in the event. Faced with this situation, Rubio has asked “to continue talking about all this because the more visibility there is, the more we can do to reverse the situation.”
The event was attended by companies that are already launching initiatives to improve the situation of the group, among which are ING and Nationale-Nederlanden, both collaborators of the Ambar Project, of the 26 de Diciembre Foundation, which works to put in contact to trans people seeking employment with companies that offer jobs according to their profile.
