For Immediate Release: Dated February 15, 2008
From: The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC)
Contacts: Media, Vanessa Edwards Foster; Houston, Texas
Chair, Ethan St. Pierre, Haverhill, MA
Contact Email: ntacmedia@...
Contact Phone: 832-483-9901
978-518-1835
Website: http://www.ntac.org

 

Key Bank Expands Employment Policy To Include Gender Identity

 

The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) is pleased to announce the expansion of employment policy at Key Equipment Finance, and indeed their expansion on their upcoming global employment policy.

 

“As a contract employment over the past year and a half with the Key Equipment Finance (KEF) division, I noted their commitment to diversity in the workplace,” said Vanessa Edwards Foster, Media Director for NTAC.  “Obvsiouly one of the first things I checked was their online hiring policy, which was sexual orientation only,” Fosted observed.

 

A spokesperson for the Human Resources department confirmed that the policy statement will be changed company-wide on it’s next employment statement revision.  Key Bank spans the length of the northern half of the nation, but its finance and leasing divisions have locations around the globe.

 

“Key had no misgivings about placing me in their Quality Relationships Team with the bulk of their most critical accounts,” Foster said.  “These were the most sensitive client situations in this particular portfolio, and all of them were resolved successfully – something that Key duly took note of.” 

 

Of her time at KEF, Foster commented that, “it was win-win.  A number of their large and difficult accounts I helped save for them.  And they provided me an opportunity to succeed and prove first-hand the worth of transgender employees in the workplace.  When you prove it by example, it’s hard to ignore.

 

“If they ever reestablish a presence in Texas, I would certainly consider working for them again.”

 

Foster added, “it’s also a victory for the little guys.  You don’t have to be a big money organization like a Human Rights Campaign to attain equality.  Even being a cash-starved and neglected group with no help at all, this proves you can still make a difference!”

 

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Founded in 1999, NTAC - the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition – is a grassroots civil rights organization working to establish and maintain the right of all transgendered, intersexed, and gender-variant people to live and work without fear of violence or discrimination.