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Trans workers win rights at Raytheon

Published Aug 5, 2005 11:07 PM

As a result of pressure from within and without, the Raytheon Company announced the week of July 24 that it is expanding its equal opportunity employment policy to include transgender and transsexual workers. (www.boston.com).

Based in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon is one of the “Big Six” defense corporations and employs 80,000 people internationally. Presently, 71 of the Fortune 500 corporations include gender identity and gender expression in their policies.

Since January 2004, 40 of these companies, including Ford, Pepsi, Wells Fargo and Staples, have expanded equal opportunity employment policies to cover transgender and transsexual workers.

These initial concessions didn’t come without a fight.

Amanda Simpson, a chief engineer and test pilot at Raytheon in Tucson, Ariz., transitioned from male to female about six years ago. She learned the corporation didn’t include transsexual workers or employees who express their gender differently.

Instead of transferring to another job within Raytheon or quitting, Simpson and other trans workers fought to have the corporation’s policy changed.

Similar internal company protests resulted in changes at other corporations and are ongoing in many others.