Job Hunting for the First Time as Openly Trans
tl;dr: It’s deflating
When my scheduled 30-minute interview blossomed into an amicable hour, I left the Zoom meeting confident. I left elated. I’d completed my first interview as ‘Josie.’ Unwittingly I’d checked off an unexpected euphoric milestone in my transition journey. I was one step closer to starting a job as Josie. One step closer to myself.
The obvious steps:
- Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
- Sperm banking
- Facial hair removal
- Wardrobe overhaul
- Makeup tutorials
- Voice feminization
- Coming out to many whom I feared would reject me
Each checked box affirms me. Now, without conscious forethought, I had X’d off another item on the transition checklist.
(However, Shon Faye observes in The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice (2021) that “as trans people start to become a more normalized idea for some societies, there are signs that the state is assuming the position of authority once held by medical gatekeepers” over validating identity (p. 167). My transition checklist is founded on external approval — not my internal fulfillment.)
