to with a pronoun that matches their gender expression. My advice is be sensitive, use common sense, and in the end it never hurts to ask anyone what pronouns they prefer if you are really unsure.

We are seeing signs of greater tolerance and acceptance of gender diversity. Facebook recently widened its set of gender identifiers [ 1]. Users may now identify as trans*, cis, and agender just to name a few. My open source community, Drupal, has had transgender as a profile gender option for more than five years. Recently, transgender activist Janet Mock published a memoir Redefining Realness [ 2] that has garnered significant mainstream media attention and positive reception.

PIPES AND FLOWER POWER

Technology and I, we’ve grown up together. Computing power, it seemed, progressed in perfect lock-step with my cognitive development. The green pipes of Super Mario challenged my five-year old dexterity. As a preteen I planned intricate X-Wing missions. As a teen I competed in networked real-time strategy games over a phone line with high-school friends, marshalling armies of Orcs, Zerg, or Terran.

In 1996, I connected to the Internet. A year later I would spend a sleepless night babysitting a download of Internet Explorer 4 over a delicate modem connection that tended to drop glibly. If you have never known life before the Internet, let me just state it was a world changing event, especially for me. By browsing that splendid chaos of the nascent Internet, I discovered I was not unique. I found other transgender people and their stories were so very similar to mine.

During my first year at Dartmouth College I discovered Lynn Conway [ 3] and Lili Elbe [ 4]. Lili constituted for me the role of pioneer and founding figure for transwomen. Her story is fictionalized in The Danish Girl, a book I read in daily three-page chunks while pulling books for interlibrary loan.

Lynn Conway became my role model—intelligent, poised and distinguished. Her career in computer science showed me a path for my studies.

That she was so brilliantly successful
gave me hope I could be as well. Lynn
was coerced to reveal her past in 2001,
having lived most of her adult life in
what we call “deep stealth,” where one
is not open about being transgender.

She posted her story to the Internet when I needed it most.

Just as the future arrives with uneven distribution, so too does social justice. In my home state of Massachusetts, legislators passed the Act Relative to Gender Identity in July 2012 [ 5]. This piece of legislation protects individuals like me from wrongful termination due to discrimination based on our gender expression. Over half of Americans live in states where this right to expression is not protected [ 6]. We are still waiting for the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ 7], passed by the Senate late last year. Just like the variation in law across the U.S., individual European Union member states have varied laws regarding anti-discrimination protections [ 8]. If you are considering a gender transition that will render your appearance outside of accepted societal norms or require changing official records, I recommend consulting legal counsel to establish your rights and protections in your home country and state as soon as possible.

An acquaintance of mine transitioned from male to female appearance on the job in a tech field. She had two yearly reviews while still presenting as a man before her transition.

Both were exemplary. After she began
to transition her appearance, her next
yearly review veered dramatically into
negative feedback. She was put on a re-
mediation plan with unreasonable ex-
pectations and not soon after was dis-
missed. Her home state does not have
legal protections that include gender
expression that prevent unreasonable
termination from a job.

I was never naive about the dangers of transitioning my gender expression from male to female. We were still not so visible in the eyes of the public in 2009 and transitioning still had the potential to bring disaster upon the fragile start of my career in Web development. Luckily I had started a new job just months before I came out. My colleagues did, and continue to, support me as a developer and a transgender woman. Before my transition at work, I had planned for worst-case scenarios and never once did I need to put one of those plans into action. I hope more companies come to support their employees as openly as mine has supported me.

BALANCING GENDER EXPRESSION
WITH CAREER GOALS

Everyone performs gender in a business setting. Our professional dress standards are quite gendered— collars and pants for men; blouse, slacks or a skirt, and appropriate accessories for women. In tech, where jeans and a T-shirt may be accepted as work attire, you’ll often find women “dressing up” more than the men. As someone who once dressed like a man and now dresses like a woman, I can attest to the expectations I present with a touch more polish than sneakers, jeans, and a T-shirt will project.

For gender queer, gender non-nor-mative, and genderless folks, business attire may feel restrictive—honestly it probably feels restrictive for many cisgender folks as well. So here we face a fundamental dilemma. How much are you willing to sacrifice your personal expression to the perceived presentation expectations of your peers? Dressing well, which is synonymous with dressing appropriately for your gender, may positively affect your career.

I will not dictate to anyone how they should dress. In my career, I have found meeting the presentation expectations of my peers—at first typically male and now typically female—has correlated positively with the continued success of my career. Can I quan-

Companies who seek
talented individuals
like us must accept
we are diverse and
our best work derives
from a place of inner
peace and honest
expression.