FTS-USDA-FS DC OFFIC
Moderator: Pat Jackman
06-08-11/12:00 pm CT
Confirmation # 7681118
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FTS-USDA-FS DC OFFIC
Moderator: Pat Jackman
June 8, 2011
12:00 pm CT
Coordinator:
Welcome and thank you for standing by.
At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentations,
we will conduct a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may
press Star 1. This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections
you may disconnect at this time.
I would now like to turn the conference over to (Debra Muse). Ma'am, you
may begin.
(Debra Muse):
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for standing patiently by too for this
Webinar. We had some technical difficulties but we decided to move on and
not keep you waiting. We've had trouble with the captioning but, however,
this Webinar will be published on the Web site at a - the full transcript at a
later date.
So we are pleased to welcome you and this is one of our first of hopefully
many events where we are educating you on the special emphasis program
that is geared to the group of lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender. And this is
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our first of our special emphasis program to observe the many significant
contributions as well as this particular group.
You know, throughout the year we always have observed various months,
whether it's Women's History Month, Black History Month, Hispanic Month
and so on, but we are pleased that the Secretary Vilsack has recognized that
we need to also engage and recognize the many contributions of another
valued group to our workforce and that's the lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender employees.
So we're pleased that you've joined us here because our goal today is to create
an awareness and to further our education about how we need to embrace all
employees in the workplace.
And the critical thing that we think about when we are working together, you
know, knowledge is power. And the more knowledge that we present on all
our employees and the various aspects of their lifestyles and so forth, it will
help us to create a better understanding and have a more harmonious work
environment.
But the Secretary Vilsack also put in place to make sure that all USC agencies
have a program manager dedicated to this group as well as the others. And
with that, I'm pleased that Forest Service has stepped out and also (within) the
lead and being committed to having program managers across Forest Service.
And I know Pat Jackman on my staff, she is our Forest Service program
manager as well as (Brad Hardwood) and he is our gay and lesbian advisory
committee representative and he is from region four and hopefully he is on the
call.
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We want this to be a participatory type event today. We want everyone to
make sure that they ask their questions because we would like to think that we
don't have any concerns or problems about the treatment of people that are
lesbian, gay or bisexual or transgender. But we do.
And what we find is that it's basically out of ignorance. Sometimes we just
don't do the right thing or make the right decisions when it comes to the needs
of all our employees.
We want to make sure that this is an inclusive work environment. We want
you to ask your questions and we want to make this a celebration of this group
as well as with any other contributions that are made to the Forest Service and
to USDA.
Now, with that, we want to turn our program over -- the Webinar -- we have a
special guest and we're pleased to have the man himself that leads this with
the -- we have Perry Stevens here and he is going to be our program leader.
He is -- actually came to us from Tennessee. He works virtual. It sounds like
he's got a great setup here. But he -- I'm pleased to have him with us and he is
going to give us a briefing today and he's -- I'm going to tell you a little bit
about his background.
He -- hopefully most of you have seen the cultural transformation, the USDA
cultural transformation news, My USDA. Well, he is the editor-in-chief and
it's an excellent newsletter that all of us should be taking time to read.
And I think hats go off to him because there's some quality information in that
document. And also he is -- he has a degree in journalism. He has a masters in
public administration. He is a former PMF, a Presidential Management Fellow
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where he was a public information officer for the U.S. Center of Disease,
right.
And also he is a former employee of NRCS, the National Research
Conservation Service and for about five years. Correct? So, as I stated earlier,
he is located in Tennessee and so he's traveled here to be with us today here in
the Washington D.C. office in the Yates building.
So without any further ado, let's give him a warm welcome and, you know,
whether you wave your hands in the air or do a clap, we here are pleased to
have him with us today and without any further ado, Mr. Stevens, take the
stand.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you very much. And I'm going to make a little noise while I move this
phone a little closer me. And now I think we can get started.
Thank you very much, (Debra). It is so nice to be here. I appreciate the work
that you're doing. I appreciate Pat Jackman. I appreciate (Brad Hardwood) and
it's just good to be at the Forest Service.
As we get started, I do want to say that the Webinar is being captioned by
Caption Colorado through the Federal Relay Contract. To ensure that any
participants with limits to their vision will be aware of everything on the
screen, I will read and describe key points on each of the slides and then
provide a lot of additional information verbally. The Webinars will be posted,
as you've heard, on the Forest Service's internal SEPM Web page, including
the Power Points, the audio and the transcript of the Webinar along with all
the handouts related to the Webinar. And we'll send you information about
getting to that page after this is done.
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Just to let you know in advance, what I have is actually two separate
presentations. The first is a generic kind of a general presentation that just
talks about the LGBT special emphasis program, why we have it, a little bit of
the history about it and then some of the main issues that go along with it.
The second presentation is geared specifically toward LGBT special emphasis
program managers themselves throughout each of the regions, just some of the
things that you will encounter as a special emphasis program manager that
you might not encounter if you were representing another group.
We're a very, very new group and, therefore, we have some different orders of
business. We have different priorities to begin with than some of the more
established special emphasis programs.
However, if you are in that first group and you want to stick around to hear
the second presentation, feel free to do that because you are more than
welcome to. And without further ado, I'll get started.
The USDA has been in the forefront of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
issues for a long time. Back in 1993, Secretary Mike Espy was the first to
issue the department's EEO and Civil Rights policy statement, which
specifically prohibited discrimination and harassment based on sexual
orientation.
And that was well ahead of nearly every other agency out there. In June of
1993, a departmental task force was formed by Secretary Espy to develop
some recommendations designed to implement his policy regarding this issue.
Unfortunately, there was a change at the secretary level and not a lot happened
in the intervening time. In July 1999, Secretary Glickman announced the
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formation of a second USDA task force on sexual orientation and this one
actually issued a report.
Part of the report said that we needed a program at USDA just like the one we
now have. He didn't have it then but they said we needed one because it would
save us money.
Here's a quote from the report: "If the department fully implements its sexual
orientation, non-discrimination and diversity policy, USDA stands to gain
greater openness, job satisfaction and retention among its workforce,
increased productivity in customer service and the prevention of costly
complaints.
"We have estimated the potential savings that could be realized by the
department through this course of action to be approximately $23 million a
year." And recall this was back in 1999, so we can only imagine how much
we are saving now that we actually do have this program in place.
In the fall of 2000, Secretary Glickman established the Secretaries Advisory
Counsel on sexual orientation, GLEAC, that acronym stands for Gay and
Lesbian Employee Advisory Counsel. And they advised leadership on issues
that affected LGBT employees.
They assisted in the implementation of department policies where this group
is concerned and they developed and delivered training addressing sexual
orientation non-discrimination. And what it amounted to was information,
education and awareness just to let the entire workforce know what the issues
were with this particular subgroup.
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Then two years ago, in June of 2009, Secretary Vilsack finds departmental
regulation 4230-002, which created a special emphasis program for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender employees.
In doing so, he elevated LGBT on par with the other special emphasis
program groups. Just recently they have also added veterans to that list. Now
USDA has eight special emphasis program groups and they are all on equal
par.
The way it works is if you have a civil rights committee, there's usually a
special emphasis program manager attached to that. That means that now
there should be an LGBT special emphasis program manager attached to that
civil rights committee as well.
When Secretary Vilsack signed this document two years ago he said this at the
Pride celebration at Jefferson Auditorium. He said, "We're going to sign a
document that is our collective commitment from the leadership of the
department down to every single employee that suggests that diversity,
including gay and lesbian diversity, is going to be celebrated, going to be
recognized and going to be part of the USDA experience."
So, as I mentioned, from 1999 until 2009, USDA had GLEAC, the Gay and
Lesbian Employees Advisory Counsel. GLEAC was disbanded with DR4230002 going into place because suddenly LGBT was a special emphasis
program.
There are several issues that are current for LGBT individuals in the United
States. I'm going to very quickly mention those.
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Employment protections; in many states you can be fired simply for being
LGBT. Same sex partnerships; we're seeing a patchwork of legal - it's a mess
across the United States. Some states will have domestic partnerships
legalized. Some states do same-sex marriage. Other states specifically prohibit
both. Some states will not have it in their own state but they will recognize
other states that allow same-sex marriage.
So this is something that really does need to be addressed and it's a huge issue
for LGBT people. Domestic partner benefits; that in particular is something
that federal employees are interested in because there is not equality there.
We do have some minor partner benefits as federal employees. There was a
recent amendment to the federal travel regulation, which actually redefined
family to - immediate family to include domestic partner and the children of
domestic partners and any dependent of the domestic partner who happens to
live there, brother or sister.
But we don't have full equality when it comes to life insurance, health
insurance. Just one personal anecdote, my partner of 18 years is a
psychologist. He teaches at a university. He's thought very seriously about
going into private practice but one of the main barriers for him is paying for
that health insurance.
If he were on equal footing with say a married federal employee, then he
could have my - take advantage of my benefits. As it is, he can't. So in many
ways this is an economic issue as well as a fairness and equality issue.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a huge, huge issue. It has been repealed, however, it
has not quite been implemented yet. We're waiting to see exactly what
happens.
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And then, finally, violence, hate crimes specifically against people because of
their sexual orientation or because of their perceived sexual orientation.
Violence in this country against LGBT folks and people who are perceived to
be LGBT has been on the rise for the past few years.
There was one dip the past year, but there is still a lot of those crimes and I'm
going to give you a little figure on that here shortly.
Now, those were some of the big issues. We're here to talk about mostly the
workplace issues as LGBT are concerned. The first thing is heterosexism and
that is a term that not everybody understands right away.
It's basically institutionalized homophobia. Sometimes it's blatant. Sometimes
it's overt. But sometimes it's hidden. I'll get back to heterosexism and we'll
talk a little more about that in just a moment.
Another workplace issue is fear, basic safety at work, harassment in a hostile
work environment and that can be something that is to most people innocuous,
like a joke. But, you know, not all jokes are funny and we know that there are
certain kinds of jokes that we don't tell at work.
Well, you know, those include jokes about LGBT people as well. Comments,
threats, workplace safety is a very important aspect of why we have this
special emphasis program.
Another workplace issue is the lavender ceiling. We have often heard women
refer to the glass ceiling. I have a friend who is of Asian decent. He talks
about the bamboo ceiling.
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The lavender ceiling is the ceiling that prevents advancement and promotion
for LGBT people. A lot of times it's not conscious. It's an unconscious bias
but it does exist and it's one of the things that we want to make sure is not a
barrier here at USDA.
Now, back to heterosexism. Let me just read you the definition: a system of
attitudes, bias and discrimination in favor of opposite sex sexuality in
relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or
that opposite sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore
superior.
Now people of any sexual orientation can hold these attitudes and hold biases
like this. Nonetheless, heterosexism as discrimination ranks gay men,
lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people as second class citizens with regard to
various legal and civil rights, economic opportunities and social equality in
the majority of the world's jurisdictions and societies.
And as I said, it takes many forms. It can be explicit, open discrimination,
such as anti-gay laws. You can make a good case for the fact that the Defense
Of Marriage Act is a heterosexist piece of legislation because it explicitly is
anti-gay.
Policies, institutional practices, these don't have to be written down.
Sometimes they're not written down; it's just assumed. But more explicitly
though, harassment based on sexual orientation or perceived sexual
orientation. That is a huge workplace issue.
Negative stereotyping, discriminatory language, using the gay panic defense
in assault and murder cases -- I don't know if you're familiar with that but
many people have gone on trial, stood before a judge and said, well, the
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reason I beat up this gay person is because he came on to me and it just drove
me crazy and I just had to lash out.
Well, we're finding that fewer and fewer judges are letting those kinds of
arguments stand. But at the same time, it is still something that is fallen back
on by some people and it is heterosexism.
In many ways, those, the more insidious part of heterosexism is the implicit,
the hidden discrimination. It operates through invisibility, under
representation and erasure.
For example, excluding historical or political figures and celebrities who were
homosexual or bisexual, completely avoiding mentioning these people in
some cases and their positive contributions to society; it's a problem of
omission, not commission.
Work environments that tacitly require LGBT individuals not to reveal their
sexual orientation by talking about their relationship status while
heterosexuals can discuss their relationships and marital status freely.
If you can imagine just standing around the water cooler talking about what
you did this weekend, you say, you know, a heterosexual person says my
husband and I went to a movie. Well, that's fine.
If a male person says the same thing, my husband and I went to a movie,
sometimes there is that feeling that just comes across, that oh, no, you crossed
a line. You shouldn't say that. Do what you want to do but don't throw it in my
face.
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Well, it's interesting because throwing it in your face is not exactly what was
happening there. That's just a comment. And if you have to spend all of your
working day thinking about everything that comes out of your mouth, editing
those pronouns, making sure that nobody picks up on the fact that in your
personal life you are in a loving same-sex relationship, that's heterosexism.
But it's nothing that's written down. No one says you can't put up a picture of
your same-sex partner on your desk. But a lot of us work in environments in
which we know that that would be frowned upon and we might even have
repercussions professionally from that.
That's something we want to get away from. We want to create a work
environment where everybody feels safe, nobody has to edit what they say
and it really makes them more productive. And I'll tell you how here in just a
second.
Another example of a hidden discrimination or implicit heterosexism, removal
of gay theme materials from public libraries or book stores simply because
they are gay. You may have heard of the book Heather Has Two Mommies. A
lot of people wanted that book taken out of public libraries.
There was nothing wrong with that book except it had gay content and that
made people uncomfortable. Another example, refusal to recognize families
headed by same-sex partners at businesses or school events, things like
gymnasium memberships, things like that.
Same-sex couples with children are families like everybody else but legally
they're not always treated that way.
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So the issues for the workplace really come down to a couple of things here.
Current employees are coming out of the closet. It's not going to change. New
employees are not going to go back in the closet just because they come
aboard the USDA.
And because of that, because there is more inclusion, there is more diversity
and people are feeling more comfortable about being themselves, those folks
who are very upset about that are having a hardened attitude.
So discriminatory attitudes, while decreasing maybe number wise, the degree
of the dissent is getting a little bit loud. I believe it was Gandhi who said first
they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
In this case, we've gone from the ignoring to the laughing and we're kind of in
the fighting stage right now as these attitudes have hardened and we're getting
down to the wire. One of these days LGBT folks will be on equal par with
everyone else and that's one of the things we're trying to make happen at
USDA.
A better workplace is one where diversity is recognized and respected. Overall
employee morale goes up as a result of that. Commitments to LGBT equality
tend to reinforce commitments to equality for other groups as well.
Sometimes you will find folks who will want to divide, pit one group against
another group but when it comes down to it, all of these special emphasis
program groups have more in common than not and we do a lot better and are
more successful when we're working together and comprehensively.
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Employees who feel forced to hide their identities, their relationships or life
experiences are less effective and they lack the cohesion with colleagues they
need to best do their jobs.
There's a scientific study that is only out on equal workplace site, it's out on
equal.com and maybe out on equal.org. I'll make sure you get the right
message for that. But it's -- talks about the scientific studies that have been
done that show that LGBT employees who are free to be themselves at work
are 20% to 30% more productive than their closeted counterparts.
And I think the reason for that is they don't have to spend all that time
thinking about am I saying the right thing, am I going to give somebody some
clue that I’m different than someone else?
Benefits of an inclusive workplace include fewer discrimination lawsuits, a
more productive workplace and it helps us to better serve all of our customers.
While the special emphasis program focuses on employees we need to look a
little beyond that because we serve face to face more people than any other
department, any other agency across the federal government.
We have folks down in rural areas who are interacting face to face, federal
employees with constituents, with customers and all of those customers are
just as diverse as we are and we need to know how to best interact with those
people and that means providing better service. So really this is going to help
us in many ways.
I talked about the number of reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation.
Back in 2005, there were 1171. In 2006, that grew to 1415. In 2007, it went up
to 1460. In 2008, over 1600 people were victims of hate crimes based on their
sexual orientation and in 2009, the last year that we have the complete
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numbers, that number has gone back down just a bit to 1436. That's good
news but it’s not yet a trend.
So we're hoping that we can eliminate this kind of hate crime, this kind of
violence and we do so in small steps. We do so by having a diverse and
inclusive workplace, by learning that our LGBT colleagues don't have horns
and tails and they're not out to bring havoc to the world. They're just here to
do their jobs like everybody else and they want the opportunity and the
environment in which to do that.
Here's a slide that shows why education like this is so important. A whole host
of people, men, women, young, old, transgender, murdered all for being
themselves. Not all of them were LGBT. Some of them had just been assumed
to be LGBT but they were all killed because of who it is that they love.
And so that gets back down to us, what we do to help combat some of this.
First of all, as a workforce, we once again adapt. We always have to adapt.
We're every changing. And what I’m talking to you about here is USDA
policy. And we know that good employees work best when they know all the
rules.
So what we're talking about here are the new set of rules that the secretary has
laid down. USDA has a non-discrimination policy that includes lesbians, gays,
bisexuals and transgender individuals and there is zero tolerance for
discrimination of any kind.
That's the basic rule. So what's the appropriate response if you are a manager
to inappropriate behavior? Well, in the same way that you would respond to
any inappropriate behavior, you're vocal about it, you're direct about ending
the behavior, you make it clear that USDA is an inclusive and tolerant work
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environment and you should let the scope of your response to inappropriate
behavior where it concerns LGBT, let those -- let that scope of your response
be dictated by the particulars of the behavior.
If you have two employees who have a conflict motivated by discrimination,
settle it between them. You don't have to enlarge the scope of the conflict by
bringing in the whole office. However, if an employee sends out an offensive
email to the entire office, then your response should be also to the entire
office.
So let the scope of your response be dictated by the behavior that you're
actually responding to.
So I've never done a presentation on this without having people ask me, well,
my religion says this is not right. I just don't think this is correct. How can I
work in this kind of environment if LGBT folks are going to be equal?
Well, my response is we are not here to change your belief or to challenge
your faith, not at all. We are here to make sure that you are informed about
USDA human resources policy. It is a matter of information.
No matter your feelings on it, the more you know about it the less likely you
are to get in trouble as a result of it. Part of our beauty as an employee is to be
aware of and comply with USDA's policies and protocols.
When we walk through the door each morning there is a part of us that we
have to leave outside because we know that there is a particular behavior,
there are particular ways to talk, there are particular ways to be that we need
to comply with.
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We all have different, sometimes competing, values but we've learned to
check our baggage at the door when we get to work each morning. Some
examples of that, I used to sit next to an unwed mother. My religion taught me
that that was not a good thing.
However, that does not mean that I could treat her differently because of that
and, of course, I didn't. A lot of people's religion tells them that divorce is
wrong. Do we treat divorced colleagues differently from those who are not
divorced? No, no matter what our personal feelings are.
You can name countless examples of things like that: people of other faiths,
people that dress weird, people with no faith, people who are atheist. Again,
we don't allow our feelings that are personal to interfere with our behavior,
which is professional.
Now, I want to talk in a moment about employees in transition. That's the T in
LGBT, the transgender employee. It's happened many times at USDA. I know
it's happened at Forest Service. It happened at NRCS where I came through
and there's likely to be an increase in the number of employees who choose to
undergo transition in the workplace.
One of the reasons for that is that last year the U.S. Tax Court for the first
time ruled that getting the surgery that actually causes the transition is a
medical expense and can be written off your taxes as a result. Until then, it
had been considered cosmetic and people who actually wanted to go through
the transition just simply couldn't do it because they couldn't afford to do it.
Now, more people will be able to, so we expect to see more transitions in the
workplace. Transition usually includes the individual living for a year as the
new gender before undergoing surgery. And that's one of the things that's been
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kind of hard for some people to understand because they think, okay, well,
you're a man until the surgery and then you're a woman.
Well, not really. There's that transitional time where there's the psychological
aspect of it. Sometimes people will be taking hormones or testosterone
depending on which way they're transitioning. But we have to know that when
people do undergo the process that it is a process. It's not just a snap here you
are one day one sex and here you are the next day another. It doesn’t exactly
work like that.
But because of this, because of that kind of gray area about who's
transitioning and what point in the transition are they, we get a number of
questions.
First of all, the most common question that is ever asked is what bathroom do
they use? Another question, how are we supposed to address them? Well, how
do we respond to co-workers who give these transitioning people a hard time?
Well, the answers to that are this. First of all, you let them use the bathroom of
the gender with which they identify. And if -- we had in the past one manager
who said, okay, if you're going through the surgery, you're dressing as a
woman but you're not really a woman yet because you haven't had the
surgery, you have to use the men's room until you do have the surgery.
Well, this is for all intensive purposes a woman dressed like a woman going
into the men's room. We can't expect that to be a fair thing to do. If you -- in
the best of all possible worlds we would have single bathrooms that are single
use for everybody.
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But in the meantime, what the department has decided is that if a colleague
has a problem with sharing a bathroom facility with someone who is
transgender, then that's the problem of the person having the problem. They
need to find a different bathroom or wait until that bathroom is clear or just be
of the knowledge that the transitioning person is not going to have to go
through hoops and hurtles in order to use the facilities.
As far as how we're supposed to address people going through transition, just
like anybody else, however they want to be addressed. If it's Mr., if it's Ms, it's
perfectly acceptable to find out how they wish to be addressed.
I used to work in a workplace where a man had been there for about 10 years.
He decided to go through a transition. He did go through the transition and
when I met this person she was a she. I had only always known her as a she.
But there were other people who had worked there back before the transition
and they insisted on calling her by her former name, her former first name,
which infuriated here and it was their kind of -- in a way sometimes it was a
mistake. Other times it was sort of a dig and we just need to be sensitive and
address people the way they want to be addressed.
And responding to co-workers who give these folks a hard time, that goes
back to responding to inappropriate behavior. As managers, as supervisors, we
don't allow it.
There have been new guidelines issued from the Office of Personnel
Management. They were issued last week or perhaps two weeks ago that are
specifically about transgender federal employees. It lays out guidelines.
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And what we are doing now at the office of human resources management
where I work is drafting these guidelines into a policy letter that is specific to
USDA so that we actually have something in hand that is USDA bona fide
that says this is how we react in the case of transgender federal employee at
work.
So what can you do to promote diversity in the workplace? The most
important thing is to just be honest. This is not an easy topic for a lot of
people. But you don't get past it unless you're able to discuss it.
We have to recognize our own biases, our own prejudices and our own values.
Be a partner. Work on projects with members of groups different from your
own, that crosscutting special emphasis program sort of stuff.
As I mentioned earlier, LGBT equality means equality for others as well.
These kinds of attitudes feed off of one another in a good way. And, finally,
just be a role model.
When you hear prejudice, be vocal in opposing it. Help educate others.
Sometimes the most effective thing you can do is to simply not laugh or react
to a joke or to a homophobic comment.
These are all things that we can do on a daily basis, little things that can make
a huge difference in the lives of many of our employees. I have my
information there on the screen and I would like to say that Pat Jackman is the
special emphasis program manager for the Forest Service. (Brad Hardwood)
has the lead in fire. Is that right?
So they are your first line when it comes to issues on this but they have the
full support and help of the department. But we'll all work together to make
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sure that the workplace is safe, that it's inclusive and that it is better and
improved, more productive.
That's going to be better for us. It's going to be better for our bosses and that's
going to be better for the American people because we will be serving them a
lot more effectively.
And at this point, we can take questions. I believe that (Marianne), our
operator, ahs been standing by very patiently and so if there are questions out
there -- we have several people in the room, too and so if they have questions
I'll repeat those so you're able to hear them out there on the phone.
So, (Marianne), do we have questions?
Coordinator:
If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1. Make sure your phone
is not muted and record your name clearly when prompted.
To withdraw that request, you may press star 2. Once again, to ask a question
over the phone you may press star 1.
Perry Stevens:
In the meantime, are there any questions from in here in the conference room?
There are about 12 of us sitting here and everyone has been very, very patient
and very quiet because we're on a speaker phone and this is being recorded.
Do we have any questions or comments? Maybe not.
As you consider whether or not you have a question, if you are on the phone I
would like to say again that our next -- I'm going to do another presentation
now and for the people who are on the phone who are LGBT special emphasis
program managers, this next presentation is something to help them be more
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effective in those jobs talking about ways that the special emphasis program is
like others an dhow it's unlike others because it's in its infancy.
So (Marianne), I'll ask again, are there any questions?
Coordinator:
There are. Our first one comes from Jim Lootens.
Jim Lootens:
Thank you. Hey, thank you very much. I guess I had a question about the
official name of the program because it seems to be used in several different
ways.
Sometimes it's LGBT. Other times it's GLBT and I'm wondering if we can get
some resolution on that because it may confuse those; not familiar with
acronyms.
Perry Stevens:
That's a good question. We've had -- when we first began with this issue in eh
department wit was GOBT because that's kind of how it was nationwide.
Over the years, it has been changed a lot. LGBT. I know some organizations
that intentionally interchange both of those depending on the moment. But
here at USDA we have been asked by management to stay with LFBT and so
that is what the official name of the program is.
The Department of Regulation is being changed in order to make sure that it
reflects that. But in the meantime, in all of our correspondence and in all of
our trainings and in our discussions we're trying to say LGBT because we
would like some consistency.
Yes. It's still easy to go back to the other. I used to say that the way to
maneuver the acronym was gay, lettuce, bacon, tomato sandwiches but that
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was not -- it doesn't work as well when you, so LGBT. So anyway, if that's the
answer to your question, though, officially we will be LGBT.
Jim Lootens:
Great, thank you.
Coordinator:
Our next question is from Gloria Quintal.
Gloria Quintal:
Hi, yes, I don't have a question, just a comment. Very well done, presentation,
really got some good answers as a supervisor. It provides some good
foundation for talking to employees and I am looking forward to a painting,
the presentation to share and to keep as a reference. So thank you very much.
Great job.
Perry Stevens:
Well, thank you very much. And I wanted to say that this presentation that
you've just heard is going out and will be in the hands of the LGBT special
emphasis program managers so if there are all hands meetings or there are
other kinds of meetings that they can present this same material that you've
just heard.
If they're talking to a general audience, they may not see quite as much as you
just saw because I added several slides in there that hopefully are good
guidance for managers and supervisors. However, if they do talk to managers
and supervisors, we do have that information for them as well. So thank you
very much.
Coordinator:
Our next question is from (Marilyn).
(Marilyn):
Hello, Mr. Stevens. I have a question with regards to your statement in the
conference that said they should live for a year as the new gender before
undergoing the surgery. We here at Job Corps -- it's an employability center,
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of course -- we have residential students here and we've just encountered this
issue.
Now, the student is in the process of undergoing the hormone treatment but
hasn’t done the surgery. Which dormitory should we have correctly placed
him in?
Perry Stevens:
Well, that is a very good question and I did say a year. That's generally what
the doctors recommend. There are probably come psychiatrists, psychologists
and surgeons out there who will put a different timeframe in there.
Have you asked this student what the student would like to do, where the
student would like to live?
(Marilyn):
We did and he was initially okay going into the male dorm but then decided
he'd probably be more comfortable in the female dorm since he hasn't
undergone surgery. So we're just trying to figure out how to keep the females
okay while he's still transitioning and he does very much look like a male.
Perry Stevens:
I see. Well, you know, a lot of it does go back in many ways to the same sorts
of stereotypes that I was warning against earlier. What a person looks like
does seem to have a huge difference in how their colleagues react to them.
I wish I had a direct and clear and concise answer for you but I really don't.
It's going to go back to that student and to your ability to educate and raise
awareness there. They’re going to have to know that there is no - again no
horns, no tails, hopefully Pat, Miss Muse and Brad can help offer you some
help and some training in order to raise that awareness.
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(Marilyn):
Well I appreciate the seminar, it’s very good, it’s been very enlightening.
Thank you.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you.
Coordinator:
Our next question is from Brad Harwood.
Brad Harwood:
Hi, this is Brad Harwood, not really a question, I just wanted to introduce
myself, say hi and thank Perry for a good presentation and Pat and Debra
Muse and forest service for putting this on.
And just to let everybody know I work for the Washington office, but I am
located in Boise Idaho at the National Interagency Fire Center and I work for
fire and aviation management.
So if anybody needs to contact me I’m in the Lotus Notes, last name
Harwood. So just wanted to say hi and thanks.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you very much Brad and I want to go ahead and since I have the
numbers in front of me I want to give these numbers out. Brad’s number is
208-387-5289. Pat Jackman’s number, she is the special emphasis program
manager for LGBT, is 202-205-0989.
And let me give you those again, Brad Harwood is at 208-387-5289, Pat
Jackman is at 202-205-0989.
Coordinator:
Our next question comes from Lois Lawson.
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Lois Lawson:
Hi, good morning. I really don’t have a question, one of my questions I did
have has been answered. But I really did want to say just thanks to everyone
for getting this together and for the information that has been provided.
It was great information and it’s also good to know that the presentation that
we have done in Region 5 with regard to the inclusion and trans-gender issue,
the information we presented is consistent with what you have said today.
So thank you again and we look forward to getting more information in the
future.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I know you guys are doing a lot of hard
work and it is greatly appreciated from the department.
Lois Lawson:
Thank you.
Coordinator:
Our next question is from Judith McHugh.
Judith McHugh: Good morning. My question may be revealing my basic ignorance of civics
but you mentioned the Defense of Marriage Act and the barriers that places in
the workforce, and I agree, a major one of course being referenced as the
insurance issue.
You also said that they recently changed the federal travel regulations or the
policy around that. Is it possible that at the department level the insurance
issue that defensive marriage puts in front of GLBT people could go away just
with the stroke of a policy?
Or does the whole law have to be changed to address that?
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Perry Stevens:
Well it’s my understanding that because DOMA was passed by the Congress
and it is across the board, then except for a few exemptions, a few exceptions
where a presidential order can make a difference, the Obama administration
has said that DOMA is actually preventing them from doing away with the
ban on allowing domestic partner benefits for federal employees.
So we can do - all we can do at the department level and at the - even at the
federal level, but until Congress actually acts our hands to a great extent are
tied.
Judith McHugh: So a follow up question if I may, do we have to be cautious then about any
issues in terms of our presentations not to be construed as lobbying congress
or anything that would violate those provisions?
I believe that’s hat checked provisions, in our role as SEPMs?
Perry Stevens:
I think it is probably a good idea to say the Defense of Marriage Act is an
issue. It’s perceived by many to be a barrier and I think that you can call it a
heterosexist law, just by the definition of heterosexist and a lot of people don’t
think that’s a bad thing.
And so that’s fine too. I don’t think that any of us should be saying call your
congressman, call your senator, doing any of that. That is not at all what we’re
saying.
What we’re just doing is, in the context of these kinds of presentations, giving
a broad view of the big issues and the Defense of Marriage Act is a big issue
so it really needs to be mentioned.
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But certainly there’s no advocacy being implied there and we should not be
doing that.
Judith McHugh: Thank you, I just wanted everyone to be clear on that including myself,
appreciate it.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you.
Coordinator:
Our next question was from Brian Potter.
Brian Potter:
Hi Perry. I’ll echo what other people have said about really appreciating the
presentation, I thought it was very well worded and framed.
And I’m also very pleased to hear the amount of focus that’s being put on
transgender issues which is often eclipsed by the LG and sometimes even the
B components.
I have a question that I’ve had for some time and maybe now is the time that it
can be answered. It has to do with gov trip and the requirement that we
specify our gender in our personal profile.
Is there any recognition or discussion about how that should be applied to
transgender individuals where their legal documentation issued by their state
may or may not allow them to be documented as the gender they now are or
the gender they were born may be different and so on.
Perry Stevens:
That’s a really good question. I haven’t heard that one before, and was not
even really aware that that was one of the things that they were having you do.
Brian Potter:
It’s part of the Patriot Act I believe.
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Perry Stevens:
Well I don’t know the answer to that. I will look into it and see what I can find
out in terms of it.
I do know that our chief human capital officer Billy Milton is very concerned
about the way that we integrate all of these programs together in everything
that we do and that means going back to documents that are either up, down,
plus minus, yes, no, male or female, maybe we don’t need to be asking that in
quite that way.
Or perhaps we should give another option, that people can choose. But I wish
I could give you a more substantive and happy answer to that.
Brian Potter:
That’s okay, I really didn’t expect you to have a substantive answer but I
wanted to raise the point because it’s something I figure is better dealt with as
a hypothetical before someone gets traumatized at airport security.
Perry Stevens:
Yeah, you’re right, you’re absolutely right.
Coordinator:
And at this time there are no other questions.
Perry Stevens:
Okay, we do have a question here in the room.
Woman:
Hi Perry, as I introduce myself I’m the conflict management and prevention
branch chief, can you hear me on the phone?
Coordinator:
We can.
Woman:
Okay, and I’m interested in collaboration with Pat as an SEPM for this group
and so if an employee comes to me, whether it be the individual of the group
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of the SEPM or an employee having some type of conflict with the employee
of the group, how would you recommend we go about if conflict management
prevention managers and getting them to the right people?
Because I don’t want to set ourselves up trying to resolve that type of issue
especially. We can assist with the education, we can assist with maybe
mediation but there also may be another element where Pat needs to get
involved or we do it in collaboration in addressing the concerns of the
individual.
So what recommendation would you have when someone comes to the ADR
program?
Perry Stevens:
Well first of all information is power, you know they say that. And we don’t
all know everything that we would like to know.
But the most important thing is to know where to go to find the information
that you need and exactly what you said.
Pat Jackman would be able to provide that information. If she didn’t have it,
she’d ask me, and if I didn’t have it we’d find it. I just want you to know that
you have support.
You have very strong support at the forest service level and you have very
strong support at the department level.
And so any kind of play that you can interact and complement one another’s
work is going to be good. So I would just urge you to stay in good
communication with her and as issues arise, take her aside some time and say
do you think this is something we need to more officially address?
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Or do you want to just give me a little you know information on the side that I
can use to help this employee through this.
Are there other questions in the room?
(Pedro):
I’m (Pedro) (unintelligible), I’m part of the (unintelligible) Hispanic and Asia
Pacific Washington office and the question that I have is related to are we
going to be an inclusive agency for service, what is the plan as far as
considering marketing or promotion to (unintelligible)?
I know we do have videos that say okay, I’m a forester, I’m an engineer, so on
to entice individuals to (unintelligible) but (unintelligible) especially enhanced
the image of the (unintelligible).
Perry Stevens:
Well one of the things I’m going to talk to the special emphasis program
managers about in the next presentation that I’m about to start is that method
of outreach.
Because I don’t know of any videos or things like that that are being put
together but what we do have is a lack of outlets to actual inform LGBT
people about the fact that the program exists.
Are we having some problems with the computer screen? Sorry, well
hopefully you can still hear me even if you can’t see it. But no, what it means
is more basic stuff like we do outreach to universities and colleges for
instance in various groups.
Well most universities and colleges have LGBT alliances or organizations.
Make sure we send those announcements to those folks as well. There are
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LGBT specific newspapers that will gladly run with a press release or give
you a little blurb that says you know always looking for new employees,
here’s a contact.
A lot of cities have alternative newspapers, weekly scene kind of things. They
are also a good avenue for reaching LGBT people. It’s a little harder to do
outreach and one of the reasons is, is because we don’t have firm numbers.
We don’t even know for real for sure, how many LGBT people there are in
America much less at USDA, much less at the forest service.
But what we do know is that LGBT cuts across all the groups and so if there’s
any way that an LGBT special emphasis program manager can partner with
another, maybe you can go out to this college.
Maybe you have a little section on the booth or in the booth as well just to say
we’re inclusive, we’re real inclusive. I mean we’ve got the LGBT stuff here
too.
And a lot of - I think that kind of cooperation will go a long way toward
actually reaching some LGBT people because they really are harder to
pinpoint and identify. Yeah, Pat.
Pat Jackman:
Yeah, this is Pat Jackman, one thing that we are also finding out, all colleges
and universities have LGBT advisors, so students go to these advisors and
they are our network.
And if we’re going to be outreaching to colleges and universities we have to
keep that in mind.
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Perry Stevens:
Very good point. Any other questions?
Coordinator:
We do have a couple on the phone.
Perry Stevens:
All right.
Coordinator:
Our next one is from Deborah Perry.
Deborah Perry:
Hi Perry, can you hear me?
Perry Stevens:
Yes, go ahead Deborah.
Deborah Perry:
My question is - I have actually two, the first one is I’m wondering if either
USDA or the Washington office of the forest service is going to develop a
brochure that perhaps could complement this SEPM area since it is rather a
new idea for some people.
And a second question is, I’ve had a concern for some time about the fact that
EEOC still isn’t recognizing this group for purposes of EEO compliance,
unless I’m outdated.
And I was wondering if you have any information on if they’re looking at
that, if there’s some kind of - anything in the works that we might be looking
forward to seeing this come up as par with the other groups that we as civil
rights directors learn to protect and have not you know people not
discriminating against.
Perry Stevens:
Right. To the EEO question, I know last week that the USDA pride
observance, our keynote speaker was Commissioner Chai Feldblum of the
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EEOC and she’s the first open lesbian or gay person to be appointed to that
body.
And she actually helped us word the new civil rights policy statement that the
secretary signed last week which actually includes gender identity and gender
expression in our official USDA civil rights policy statement.
I don’t know exactly what EEO has planned, but I do know that under
Commissioner Feldblum that this is a very important issue for them and it was
important for her that we had the wording just right because she’s trying to
make that uniform across the federal government.
I don’t know if that answers your questions about the EEO complaints,
because I don’t really know the ins and outs of that. And it’s probably
something that’s best answered by Miss Muse or perhaps Pat.
Deborah Perry:
Well my question - can you still hear me?
Perry Stevens:
Yeah.
Deborah Perry:
Well what I’m wondering is I think in order for it to be recognized to go
through the courts there’s a complaint you would need to actually change
statute and I guess that was my question is, is it getting to that level yet that
we can expect something along those lines?
If you don’t know that’s okay.
Perry Stevens:
I don’t know for sure but one of the things that is on the table is the
employment non-discrimination act, ENDA, should that be passed, that would
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basically put LGBT federally across the board when it comes to workplace
equal to all of these other protected groups and classes.
Until then what we have is an executive order from the president and then
different - our agencies and departments have their own rules on top of that.
But it’s codified but not as codified as it will be hopefully one of these days.
Deborah Perry:
So what was the name of that again?
Perry Stevens:
It’s the - the acronym is ENDA, it’s the employment non-discrimination act.
Deborah Perry:
Okay, thank you for that information.
Perry Stevens:
Sure.
Coordinator:
Our next question is from Brad Harwood.
Brad Harwood:
Oh hi, this is Brad, I wanted to make a comment about the gov trip, that’s
actually a really good point for security your gender and your birth date and
your name in gov trip must match your driver’s license.
So your electronic ticket matches your license when you check in. So if
somebody’s transitioning until they actually change their driver’s license, the
gender needs to be the same.
But then once they make that change on the driver’s license then they would
change - make the update in gov trip. Because otherwise if they don’t match
they’re not going to be able to get on a flight.
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Perry Stevens:
Right. Well and I think one of the roles of a special emphasis program
manager would be to help advise an employee who is going through that
transition about the legalities of how they are recognized in gov trip and other
places.
And I think that’s something that you can get from your civil rights division
because again if they don’t have the answer, we’ll all find it.
So we are running out of time here and I want to make sure that we get to the
special emphasis program managers themselves. Anybody who’s on the line
or in the room who wants to stay, doesn’t matter if you’re a special emphasis
program manager or not, you’re welcome to.
But we’re just going to talk about some of those roles and responsibilities and
some specific things that LGBT special emphasis program managers might
encounter.
Their counterparts in other programs might not. So I’m going to give you just
a second to hang up or leave and then we’ll get started. Okay, we’re going to
get started now.
And this second one as you’re seeing is being an effective LGBT special
emphasis program manager. There are several things that we need to talk
about. First of all what is a special emphasis program?
Well the term refers to those programs that focus special attention on certain
specific groups as a result of a particular law, regulation or executive order.
SEPs were established to address the employment related concerns of groups,
not specifically included in other programs where a need for special emphasis
or employment concerns of such groups has been demonstrated.
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Special emphasis programs are formed a number of ways through executive
orders, through federal laws, through regulations. In our case at USDA we
exist as a special emphasis program because of a departmental regulation,
DR4230-002.
You will see there on your screen there is a URL if you’d like to actually take
a look at that departmental regulation. There is also - you can go to the USDA
website and search for departmental regulations and you should be able to find
it that way as well should you like to read it.
The purpose of the special emphasis program is to provide focus on issues like
employment, retention, promotion, training, career development and
advancement opportunities affecting applicants and employees.
It says there in NRCS, you can tell this was an old slide for me, it’s supposed
to be forest service or USDA is what it should say so please forgive me for
that.
The LGBT special emphasis program is a little different from the others.
We’re a baby. We are in our infancy. So our first priorities right now are
education, awareness, workplace safety and inclusion.
Our goal is to get to the place where we have the luxury to focus solely on
recruitment, retention, career enhancement and other more traditional special
emphasis program issues.
So a role as a special emphasis program manager is to assist leadership, to
identify barriers or potential barriers, the hiring, development, advancement,
retention of minorities, women and individuals with disabilities.
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You are to propose solution to remove such barriers and provide consulting
and program support to help eliminate those barriers.
One of the things - one of the ways you do that is to just be on alert. Listen to
managers, look at publications, look at documents, make sure that the LBGT
special emphasis program is on equal footing with all the other special
emphasis programs.
When it’s appropriate, remind management to include LGBT employees
whenever other minority groups are referenced. And advocate for LGBT
language -- inclusive language -- to be included in all official documents when
possible.
Your job is to be -- as a program manager in this special emphasis program -an advocate for the employee. And so that means inclusion and full
acceptance of that employee.
Always ask questions. How will this policy affect LGBT employees? How
will this decision impact LGBT employees? Think again. Is management
being inclusive? When they’re not, gently point that out. Is there a safe and
inclusive work environment? Are some co-workers giving other co-workers a
hard time?
You might need to intervene by talking to a manager -- talking to your
manager about that. And do you have good communication with your civil
rights committee, particularly the chair person of your civil rights committee?
And do you enlist support from your fellow LGBT special emphasis program
managers?
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There are a number of you here at Forest Service, you have good leadership
who are open and willing to listen. Tap those resources because you can be a
very good resource to one another. If you need help from the department, Pat
Jackman, Brad Harwood, Debra Muse will make sure that you get it.
And my commitment to you is to back you up in your job as the LGBT
Special Emphasis Program Manager. Especially in some parts of our
workforce this is more of an issue than in other places. And it’s -- as I
mentioned earlier -- it’s a sensitive topic for people but we don’t get beyond it
unless we’re able to openly discuss it in a rational way in terms of the rules, in
terms of human resources management. Again this is not an ethical -- well,
it’s not a - it’s not a moral or a religious issue. We’re talking about it strictly
from a human resources issue and it’s important to stay with that focus.
Keep your immediate supervisor informed of all of your special emphasis
program activities. All of us basically are collateral duties -- Special Emphasis
Program Managers -- and we’re spending 80% to 90% of our time during our
jobs that we were hired to do. And so - but we still need to make sure that we
keep our supervisors informed of the SEP activities we’re involved in.
Ensure that an addendum exists to your position description regarding
collateral duties. It actually needs to be part of your performance plan. If you
look at Departmental Regulation 4230-002 you will find one of the
addendums to that is a memorandum of understanding for each Special
Emphasis Program Manager.
It’s a memo that you sign that basically says these are my roles and
responsibilities. I’m going to adhere to them. And it’s a contract. And it’s
important that each of you has filled one of those out and get it back to Pat.
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How, when and the length of time you will serve as your Special Emphasis
Program Manager is going to vary from agency to agency within the
department. I’m not sure if you have a hard and fast rule on that here at Forest
Service but that’s not across the board the same throughout USDA. So your
mileage may vary when it comes to the length of time you serve.
Percentage of time spend on program duties -- we recommend 20% of work
time. Some people only have 10% and I’m here to tell you if you do your job
right you’re going to feel like you need 50% because there’s a lot of work to
do. But you just have to balance.
And - but set aside time to take care of your SETM duties. And again, another
reminder -- a stand-alone element needs to be included in your performance
appraisal if you are a SEPM - Special Emphasis Program Manager.
One of the things that we all deal with as Special Emphasis Program
Managers is the MD17 Report. That’s the policy guidance which the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission provides to federal agencies for their
use in establishing and maintaining effective programs of equal employment
opportunity under Section 717 of Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
MD17 provides a roadmap for creating effective equal employment
opportunity programs for all federal employees as required by Title 7 and the
Rehabilitation Act. As I mentioned before, one of the issues that we have as
LGBT Special Emphasis Program Managers is there is no number. There
aren’t figures to actually compare to other groups and to the civilian labor
force.
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However, that does not mean that you should not be part of your division or
your agency’s MD17 report. If at all possible have a place at the table. Your
input is still important. It there are not hard number to drive what it is that you
recommend at least be there and hear what other things are happening.
And just being at the table is very important. The US Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission has lots of directives and guidance. You can
actually go to their Web site and look up MD715 and there is a frequently
asked questions about that. And again, the MD stands for Management
Directive 17, so you can find more information there.
The Federal -- what is it -- Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program -FEOR. I can never remember what that acronym stands for. That’s another
source - another report that most Special Emphasis Program Managers will
either have some input into or will be analyzing or will help guide and inform
what you do as a Special Emphasis Program Manager.
Again, even though we can’t have those figures, those hard numbers for
ourself, it doesn’t mean that we can’t have input into these reports.
All of these reports are compared against the Civilian Labor Force. That is,
persons 16 years of age and over, except those in the armed forces who are
employed or are unemployed and seeking work. That’s the figure that’s the
baseline that we compare all of the other numbers that USDA has that Forest
Service has.
But the point is we want our workforce to reflect the civilian labor force as
much as possible.
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Percentages for each minority group presented in the Federal Equal
Opportunity Recruitment Program -- FEOR report -- are derived from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics current population survey. It’s a monthly survey of
households, the Bureau of the Census or Bureau of Labor Statistics. And it
covers non-institutionalized individuals 16 years of age or older employed or
unemployed, US citizens and non-US citizens.
And the other day one of the Special Emphasis Program Managers made a
really good point. When you look at, it covers non-institutionalized
individuals 16 years of age or older, which means that if you look at the
population of those who are incarcerated, if you were to include them in there,
these numbers would probably look a lot different.
And so just keep in mind, then that the civilian labor force might not be a true
reflection of America as a whole though that is what we’re trying to go for.
We’re trying to reflect the civilian labor force in our workforce.
So Special Emphasis Program Management, they conduct an assessment of
the program including an analysis of the workforce data. You engage with
special emphasis groups in the workforce to identify concerns or issues related
to their employment, development, advancement and retention and develop an
understanding of the agency’s mission. Be sensitive to shifts in occupations,
policies, or external factors that may impact the future workforce of the
agency
Look for triggers. A trigger is a red flag. It’s something that makes you think,
“This needs to be investigated.” It’s a condition, a disparity. It’s something
that warrants further inquiry. It could be a piece of information, a statistical
barrier. It could be a trend. Something that alerts an EEO professional that
additional scrutiny of the area, where the trigger occurred is necessary.
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Agencies must investigate triggers to determine whether actual barriers are at
work. Triggers can lead to barriers but they don’t always. Sometimes a
trigger, a red flag turns out to be a red herring. But we have to go for it and
make sure that we follow those up. And if we do determine that a trigger has
led us to a barrier, well the barrier is a policy, it could be a procedure, it could
be a practice, it could be a condition that limits employment opportunities for
members of a particular race, ethnic background, gender or because of a
disability.
Some barriers are very easy to identify. Other barriers are embedded in the
day to day procedures and practices of an agency and may appear to be neutral
but in reality aren’t.
Again, it’s the kind of thing what I mentioned before with the picture on the
desk. If you know where you work that having a picture of your same-sex
partner on your desk will bring you grief even if it’s just an undercurrent,
that’s enough to inhibit you. That’s a - that’s - it appears to be a neutral thing
but it really is - it can be a hurtful thing.
That kind of thing can be a barrier. That may not be the best example but
that’s what came to mind. Maybe some of you have better examples that you
can provide.
You need to have good relationships with your National Special Interest
Program Manager. You need to be on Pat Jack man’s radar and she definitely
needs to be on yours. I’ve said state here your regional leadership, you
regional employees. You need to have a good relationship with those folks at
that level.
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Though your Human Resources folks help with recruitment efforts find out
about detail information. Are details that are available being equitably given
out? Are you getting the training you need? Is it on par with other special
emphasis programs training? And look at that workforce data.
You want to have good relationships with other Special Emphasis Program
Managers, not just the ones in your area but in all areas. And then of course
the organizations related to your special emphasis program area. You may
form a professional relationship with that Director of the LGBT Alliance at
the university that Pat was mentioning earlier or you may make contact with
the editor of the local LGBT newspaper to say, “You know I’m here as a
resource and I’ll send you announcements as we have them.” Those sorts of
things.
Colleges, universities, professional organizations maintain those relationships
and of course as I mentioned before, maintain a good relationship with your
civil rights committee.
Maintain good program records and submit quarterly and annual
accomplishment reports to your national special emphasis program manager,
Pat. You need to utilize these reports to document your progress. It also helps
when you come back to your own performance appraisal because it actually
gives you the information you need to get outstanding on that performance
appraisal.
I have no doubt you’ll all be outstanding. Promote diversity and inclusion.
This is almost the same slide that I showed toward the end of the last
presentation but there are a couple of extras on here. Sure, still be honest,
recognize your own biases, prejudices, and values. Be a partner. Work on
projects with members of groups different from your own. Be a role model.
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Be vocal in opposing prejudice. Help educate others. Decide not to laugh, not
to react to that joke. People get the message.
But in addition, our role is to be a teacher. We need to teach tolerance, we
need to encourage openness and understanding and we also need to be a
student. We have to continually educate ourselves and others. We have to be
knowledgeable about our own civil rights policy statement about what the
rules are and be able to talk about them in terms of USDA policy. Not what
you think, not what you believe but what is -- what the Secretary says it is.
So what do you need to be prepared for if you’re an LGBT Program Manager?
This is where it’s different than some of the other programs. Employees will
probably come out to you. You may be the only person they have ever come
out of the closet to because in many ways you’re the face of LGBT to them.
You’re a safe face, a safe space.
Employees of all sexual orientations are going to automatically seek you out
as the expert. You have the LGBT Special Emphasis Program Manager title.
That means you have to know everything there is about LGBT. Well of
course, that’s not the case but as I mentioned earlier you do have to know
where to go find that information.
It’s always okay to say I don’t know but I’ll get back to you. And build your
resources. I suggest creating a brief one-pager, a handout that includes Web
sites and other contact information local to your area -- something that will
directly benefit the employees who are in your region or in your area, your
city, wherever you happen to be operating. That can be good local resources.
Sometimes just getting them in touch with the right local people makes a huge
difference. Employees who are dealing with the coming out process of a
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friend or a family member may seek you out for advice and sometimes maybe
for consolation but mostly for reassurance, I think.
And one of the things that we can do for employees who have a loved one
who is coming out and they’re uncomfortable with it is to remind them that
there are plenty of happy, healthy well-adjusted LGBT people in the world
and a lot of them are working for USDA.
So in many ways you might just end up being a confidante, a shoulder to cry
on. I think that’s really going to be an issue for a lot of us. And if someone, an
employee deals with personal abuse or harassment they may come to you. If it
rises to the level of actually needing to file a complain you should help them
with that.
Sometimes people just want somebody to talk to. And they don’t actually
want to make something a federal case so they don’t want to go through all
the paperwork. Use your best judgment about when to encourage that and
when necessary bring a manager into it. And when all else fails and you don’t
really know, contact Pat. That’s all I’m going to say -- contact Pat. That’s
always a good resource.
So let’s go back to transitioning at work. As a Special Emphasis Program
Manager if somebody s going through a transition from one sex to another
your job is to be a consistent and reliable resource for management because
management’s going to have a lot of questions. And they’re going to want the
answers from you.
The whole bathroom issue. The whole what do you call them issue. Prepare to
be an advocate for the employee who is undergoing transition. Many times
these employees find themselves completely alone. It freaks people out
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sometimes and they don’t know how to react to the person that they thought
they knew and maybe they don’t know as well as they thought they did. And it
just - it gives an imbalance to a work situation where they may need an
advocate and you’re going to be the most likely advocate that they seek out.
And mostly you need to educate the impacted workforce. Talk about the -well give the presentation that I did earlier today to just kind of increase
education and awareness about this issue so that the whole concept of the
other isn’t quite as huge as it is. We’re all really the same. We’re more the
same than we’re different no matter what we look like or what our plumbing
happens to be.
Again, be a resource. Many employees will assume that you know everything
there is to know about LGBT. You don’t have to know the answer but you do
have to know where to find it. And this is important. Always take comments
and questions seriously. Sometimes those of us who have dealt with these
issues before assume that others have the same knowledge that we do and in a
lot of times they don’t.
Some people will ask questions out of ignorance that we might even think are
funny but you don’t laugh at something like that. You take all questions
seriously. You take all comments seriously because if someone has the resolve
to come to you with this it’s probably taken a little willpower of their own to
do it. Because it’s -- like I said, it’s not easy to talk about these things. So if
they are talking to you about it give them that respect.
So that’s the end of that portion of this presentation and I don’t know what
we’re looking like on time but if there are questions, Operator?
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Coordinator:
Once again, if you would like to ask a question please press star 1 on your
touchtone phone.
Perry Stevens:
And are there any questions from the room? Yes go ahead.
(Pat Aniento):
Yes I’m (Pat Arniento) (unintelligible) to this Program Manager for the
county program in Asia-Pacific. My question is, should I be concerned as a
Program Manager about the future of the program once we have a new
Secretary of (unintelligible)? Will that person be supporting the program or
will he be kind of like a (unintelligible) traditional.
Perry Stevens:
Well, as we all know, we do our jobs many times at the whim of the
Secretary. Under this particular Secretary, he's very progressive, he's very
forward thinking. And one of the things that he has done - by putting LGBT in
the departmental regulation - it made it a little more institutionalized for the
department.
Of course, someone could come along and change that. But one of the things one of my goals is - as long as I'm able to be here that we will continue to
normalize LGBT to the point where it's just assumed that the department of
regulation will continue as it has.
But who knows what the future brings? What we're doing now though is
working hard to make sure that the things we put in place - the policies, the
departmental regulations, the decisions that are made - we want to make sure
that they are as permanent as we can make them. And one of the ways to do
that is to continually educate.
Man:
Part of the program is to endorse for advocacies (unintelligible).
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Perry Stevens:
Well, there are Federal employee groups that members - that employees - can
be part of one. One is called Fed Globe, you can look that up, you can Google
that just Federal Globe, G-L-O-B-E. And you have information there.
I've also been privileged to be part of an organization that is just starting
called the Federal Equality Coalition which is going to be another LGBT
Federal employee group that will include not only Executive Branch
employees like us but it will have Congressional employees, it will have
employees in the Judicial Branch, all coming together. It's not competing with
Globe but it will be, hopefully, the next step.
A lot of what Globe has done has been social kind of stuff just helping LGBT
employees in the workplace find one another so that there's a support
mechanism there. I think the goal of this new group is going to be to give
more advice to more help the managers. And to be a resource in that sense.
Man:
Thanks for (unintelligible).
Perry Stevens:
Sure, another question.
Man:
I don't have questions. Just commenting on the last impression, basically it
really boils down to you already have (unintelligible) an Executive Order
which we know the President may change that. But we have an Executive
Order working in a direction. You have your Federal regulation that exists
now that can be changed.
But the bottom line is you have Civil Rights Act with a non-discrimination
requirement. So, any policy that we have if we are to be non-discriminatory in
every aspect of what we (unintelligible) that would be changing. That nondiscrimination won't change with Administration (unintelligible).
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Perry Stevens:
And also, I think that the whole cultural transformation is so important to the
Secretary that he will make sure that whoever comes in after him knows how
important it's been. How much progress we've made in the transformation.
And why it's so important for employee moral and our productivity to keep it
going. And, so - but thank you for that comment.
Perry Stevens:
(Marianne) do we have any questions on the phone?
Coordinator:
We do. We have one from Brian Potter.
Brian Potter:
Yes, we've been - you probably already know this - but we ended up with
three LGBT SEPMs out here in Pacific-Northwest. And we've been sort of
bouncing among us the question of how do we establish a contact list or a
mailing list to work with those who want to be included in things while not
inundating everyone who doesn't want to see the information.
Because, I mean admittedly some things should go out to everyone. But others
might be for a select- self-selected group. The catch is public distribution lists
on the Forest Service System are visible to everyone which means anyone
who asks to be on that list is making their participation visible to the entire
agency.
And we've hemmed and hawed about alternatives for privacy and still getting
the word out. And I’m curious if you or anyone else on here have an insight
into how to do this with respecting both of those points?
Perry Stevens:
I know that when Glee Act was formed back in 1989 there was a sense of fear
that only people who were in Glee Act at the beginning were invited. It was,
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like, I know this person is a lesbian, so I think we can ask her. I know this
guy's gay, I think we can ask him.
As time went on it became a little bit more normalize and people would
approach them and say, "Hey, I don't want to be part of this group." But the
same fear that you were talking about was at work there then too.
I tell you, we sent out that Pride announcement that goes out and we get
negative emails from it. And that's just a fact of life. We put up posters for our
Pride event, people started tearing them down. That's an issue.
So there's a reason that people want to be safe and not want to be outed on a
list. I think that’s a real issue. I'm not sure how to address it but perhaps Debra
does.
Debra Muse:
Well, I think, yes, you're going to have some that behave just as you indicated
that's going to want to, you know, erase things and try not to deal with issues.
But it's no different than when we have the Christmas season or the Holiday
season. We get emails all the time about what's appropriate in their minds.
And what's not - what they think is not appropriate.
I think if we continue to put information on the civilized Web site in terms of
the points of contact. And invite those who have an interest or want more
information to contact and reach out. I think also the people, places, and
things when we do culture transformation. That's our Forest Service
Newsletter that can make it none that Pat Jackman is the manager here at
Forest Services as well as Brad at this (unintelligible) number.
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So, it's up to the individual. So that their privacy is not invaded. I think that
they can reach out to the program managers and get more information. That's
one way to do it.
And also, the program managers out in the field with various tools. I'm hoping
that as you stated that your Power Point presentation will become part of the
training tools that will be spread across the Forest Service. And to educate our
leaders as part of their at the highest levels, their training and so forth.
Because the more we create this awareness the more understanding that we'll
have in the workplace.
Pat Jackman:
And this is Pat and as far as I know with all special emphasis program
managers - Hispanic, (unintelligible) women, whatever. When messages go
out, they go out to all employees. Everyone's awareness and understanding
and education.
The only groups I know that have their specific constituency are the
recognized employee organizations. Now, if there's going to be employee
organizations - employer organizations - for our LGBT folks somebody's
going to have to start it up, start networking and that'll be it's one distribution
list and managed by that, you know, whoever's going to be running it.
But as (EST peons) we're educating and sharing with everyone.
Perry Stevens:
True and if you are interested or someone asks you about an employee infinity
organization, the USDA Globe President is named Blake Velde, V-E-L-D-E,
first name was Blake, Velde. And he is in departmental management. He is
the President of Globe USDA but he is also a special emphasis program
manager for departmental management.
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He's a good resource to have. And most of the Globe - most of the USDA
Globe functions are in the Washington DC area which puts us at a
disadvantage if we don't live here. And I don't live here.
Hopefully we'll find some ways to connect and to network that will allow us
to have that same kind of interaction locally. But until then, get on the mailing
list and just, if nothing else, word of mouth.
I personally have my special emphasis program manager list for LGBT that I
send things out on. But I've also received emails from people, really I don't
know. Across the department saying, you mind keeping me updated on what's
going on. I'd like to see this.
So I have a separate list, that's more of an informal communication list. And I
send out a blind copy to those folks and let them know what's going on too.
Again, it's just a way of building relationships. You don’t necessarily have to
do it that way. But it might be a good interim step.
Pat Jackman:
And this is Pat and right now we do have a distribution list for Forest Service,
LGBT SEPMs. And it's getting populated. Not all of the regions have a
representative. The regions that don't have identified SEPM have the Civil
Rights Directors cover the program.
And any messages that we'll be sending out of the Washington office are
going to both the Civil Rights Directors and our Forest Service SEPM list. So
at this time I’m also requesting that the Civil Rights Directors follow up in
making sure you have somebody appointed or however you wish to make sure
that there's clear communication lines.
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Perry Stevens:
(Marianne) any other questions?
Coordinator:
We have one from Debra Perry.
Debra Perry:
This is me again, I just wondered I have the second question from before on
this USDA or the Washington office plans to develop a brochure for
LGBTSEPM area?
Perry Stevens:
Yes, and I'm glad you brought that back up. That is something that we are
certainly planning to do at the department level. And I seem to get indication
in looking at Debra and Pat here that there will be something for Service
specific too.
I think just like a tri-fold sort of brochure that explains the program, why we
have the program and what it means for us as employees. It would be simple,
direct, but it would also give us the visibility that we need to actually get the
employees who might want to take advantage of the program get in contact
with us.
So, yes, that is in the works.
Pat Jackman:
Yes, and this is Pat and our Web site has to revised and updated. And I, now
in our paperless lifestyle here I think we can keep a Web site updated and full
of resources that everyone can tap and utilize at your own location.
Perry Stevens:
All right, any others?
Coordinator:
There are no other questions.
Perry Stevens:
Any other questions from the table? Yes.
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Man:
Comment.
Woman:
(Unintelligible) hear him talk.
Perry Stevens:
Okay, we're going to have a comment here.
Man:
Starting the (unintelligible) basically we want to go ahead and in the MB715
under establishing a new LGBT special (unintelligible) program For Service
Wide, is an action that will be happening in 2011/2012. We may also have
another - we may propose a policy statement regarding the new SEPM and the
current regulation to further communicate more information as another action.
And also, developing a communication information strategy regarding LGBT
as another action. So, in the MB715 to eliminate barriers that you discussed in
your presentation.
Perry Stevens:
That sounds great. That's very good.
And I also want to remind you that there will be a policy letter that comes out
from the department that'll come down, that'll actually give specific guidance
to managers about transitioning employees and those guidelines from OPM as
I understand them are pretty specific. And we have needed them for a long
time. And we're finally going to have something in writing. This is what you
do if you have an employee who's going through transition.
So there's a lot of good stuff on the horizon. I'm very excited and I'm excited
about what Forest Service is doing.
So any other questions around the table?
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I want to thank everybody on the call. I want to thank everybody here. Thank
you Debra Muse, thank you Pat Jackman, thank you Brad - thank everybody.
Yes?
Debra Muse:
Well, I'd like to add. I want to thank you Stevens, I think this has been an
excellent webinar. You know, one thing about it to be empowered to know
better and to do better. And that's what we want to do to make sure that we are
continuously educated on this subject.
And one of the things that -a couple of things, well, several things that you
highlighted that I think promote diversing and inclusion of things that you
listed there. I think it would make an excellent poster for our office and so
forth because it touched upon how we're supposed to be teachers.
And how we need to check in on our own biases and values and beliefs and so
forth check stereotypes. So, I'm really looking forward to what we're going to
do here in the Forest Service, as you stated this is the group that's cutting
across all the other groups. And so must ensure that we continue to educate.
And we've got a lot of willing people that are out in Forest Service that are
ready to take action and to do some good things. I'm pleased that the number
of managers and supervisors that have participated in this call. Simply because
you educators spawn things that we should know how to handle certain things
in the workplace situations.
And I know when I was in stand up this morning, that's our regular daily stand
up call with the Executive Leadership team when I announced this. I put a lot
of stress on, in my comments, how important it is for leaders to make sure that
- you know, even on topics that we're not always comfortable about. That we
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need to take step because we're in a position that we must make sure that we
are the leaders in taking corrective action and making sure that this is a
workplace where we value everyone.
Everyone and their differences and with culture transformation, you know,
we've got a lot going on. I'm super pleased. I think the timing is right, as
(Robert) indicated. We've got some initiatives that we can take here in Forest
Service to make this so much more inclusive work environment.
And so I want to thank you. We've - I'm going to talk about it more in our
Unconscious Bias, we have a focus group here with Unconscious Bias
because we talk about things, barriers, that impede the hiring of folks and
retention and development. It's all so important for us to know.
So thank you for sharing the information with us today. And I'm sure that I
can step out and say, that he's going to be available. I'm sure that if any of you
wanted to share his talent or have him part of your specialist program training
that - to put on a webinar just for your organization.
I'm hoping that you will be available to that and because I want to see us a
part of everyone's the regions, station, and areas - areas training for the
leadership team.
Perry Stevens:
Well, certainly. And when these Power Point - Power Point presentations are
available, I certainly want the LGTB folks to take that first one and let that be
your guideline for presenting that information. Of course tailor it to your own
areas. Put your name on it. Make it your own but as long as that saline
information is still in there it will be effective.
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Debra Muse:
Now, I just want to say that we're going to recognize our speaker for the day.
We'll have available for him our Civil Rights cup, one of our cups that we like
to share with folks that we generally give our speakers. As well as provide
you with Smokey, Smokey Bear that represents our Forest Service and we
want to get it signed by the chief.
Perry Stevens:
Oh, that is great. Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Debra Muse:
Thank you so much. And let's give a wave of the air and a clap.
Perry Stevens:
Thank you so much.
Debra Muse:
Any other comments from anyone else? Thank you. Thank you all for joining
us today.
Perry Stevens:
And thank you, (Marianne).
Coordinator:
Thank you.
END