The National LGBTQ Task Force and the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights released a resource guide this week to help fight workplace discrimination against transgendered and gender non-conforming people.

It is one of many issues that we concentrate on this week and it is an ongoing issue in general.

--Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, Trans/Gender Nonconforming Justice Project

According to a DC Office of Human Rights report, when hiring, 48 percent of employers surveyed seemed to prefer less-qualified candidates that were perceived as cisgendered over more-qualified candidates that were perceived as transgender.

A 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey (Injustice at Every Turn) stated that, 90 percent of transgender people in the U.S. report experiencing workplace harassment and discrimination.

The resource guide is intended to help the fight against discrimination.

We want to help employers get to a point where they have safe, affirming, and inclusive workplace environments that help transgender people feel included.

It is relevant because as we talk about a transgender tipping point, transgender people are still victims of systemic oppression.

--Rodriguez-Roldan

Fifteen percent of transgendered people in the U.S. make less than $10,000 per year, which is four times the national average poverty rate of the general population. These transgender employees face wage disparities that make it harder for them to provide for themselves and their families, the Human Rights Center reports.

Of course, poverty lubricates the path to the underground economy of sex work and drug tranfficking...and once someone has a criminal record, it becomes much harder to find employment.

Having access to dignified work and a job is a part of the American Dream and transgender people are being denied access to that. The essential lesson is the work is not over yet. We have a long road ahead of us.

--Rodriguez-Roldan