California Launches Employment Program For Transgender People

Trans restaurant owner Michaela Mendelsohn is leading the charge to help fight the major unemployment problem.  

 by Adam Salandra

09/16/2016 

________________________________________________________________________________ 

In an effort to fight an unemployment epidemic, California has announced the development of a work program for transgender people. 

Trans community members face unemployment at twice the rate of other Americans, with the statistics even worse for trans people of color, and that is something that the program, which is the first large-scale effort of its kind in the country, is trying to fix. 

The idea was first presented by Michaela Mendelsohn, a trans woman who owns six El Pollo Loco restaurants in Southern California and hires trans people to work in all of them. 

Although she now believes that between eight and ten percent of her 150 employees are transgender, she had been the only trans worker in her restaurants for years. 

She began to hear stories from potential trans employees about how they were constantly denied positions and often laughted at by hiring managers, and she knew she needed to help make a change. 

Michaela Mendelsohn

 

Aside from hiring the employees in her own restaurants, she partnered with the Los Angeles LGBT Center to help find jobs for unemployed trans community members. 

“Trans people are vulnerable when we come into the workplace,” said the center’s Drian Juarez. “If somebody makes fun of us, we may not have the wherewithal to stand up for ourselves because we don’t want to jeopardize our jobs.”

In order to get owners and managers on board, the California Workforce Development Board will pay the first 60 hours of a new hire’s wages from a grant of $150,000. 

h/t: LGBTQNation

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

Adam Salandra

Adam Salandra is a writer and TV host in Los Angeles. When he's not covering the latest in pop culture, you can find him playing with his French Bulldog puppy or hovering over the table of food at any social gathering. 

@adamsalandra

Read more articles from New Now Next, here.