10 Sep Locate and recruit two participants who meet the following criteria: 1. Self-identify as LGBTQ+ 2. Age-18 or older 3. Persona 1 ? New to workforce interested in public sector Person

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Communication, Employment, & LGBTQ+ Community Interview Study

Interviewer’s Name:

Subject 1 Subject 2 Additional Subject

Interview Date:

Read this statement in its entirety

My name is:

I am a graduate student enrolled in a communication research methods course at Old Dominion University (taught by Dr. Thomas J. Socha, Professor, Department of Communication & Theatre Arts) and supported by research partner, MetroStar ( https://www.metrostar.com). We are gathering information intended to better understand and improve employment communication (job searching, applying, interviewing, etc.) for the LGBTQ+ community and prospective employers. Your participation is voluntary. No rewards are offered for participation. Your identity will not be revealed. Information from the study will be communicated in reports, papers, and presentations but no specific information about study participants will be communicated. Any and all potentially identifying information will be removed or masked. You can choose to not answer any (or all) of the questions for any reason and may withdraw from participation at any time. Files of recordings of the interviews will be kept in pass-word protected spaces and after transcription and analyses are complete will be deleted. For further information about the study direct questions to Dr. Socha, Professor of Communication, [email protected]. For questions or concerns about you rights as a study participant please contact Dr. Randy Gainey, Human Subjects Review Committee Chair, [email protected].

Do you agree to be interviewed for this study?

( 1 )

Demographics (ask theses questions aloud and record them on this sheet for each subject)

1. To which gender do you most identify?

Or can prompt with:

( 2. Your current age: 3. Please indicate all that apply to you: o American Indian or Alaska Native o Asian o Black or African American o Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander o White o Prefer not to answer 4. Are you: o Hispanic or Latino or Spanish Origin? o Not Hispanic or Latino or Spanish Origin? o Prefer to not answer 5. Do you have work experience in the public sector? Yes 6. Do you have work experience in the private sector? Yes 7. What is your highest level of education? o o o o o o PhD degree MA/MBA/MS/JD degree BA/BS degree AA degree Some college High school 8. What is your current occupation? Please describe. )

No No

9. What is your current employment status? For example, employed, look for employment, in school and working part-time and so on.

10. Are you currently seeking employment?

· Yes

· No

· Prefer to not answer

11. Do you foresee searching for new employment during this current calendar year (2022)?

· Yes

· Maybe

· No

· Prefer to not answer.

Interview Items (Ask these items aloud and somehow record their responses—audio, zoom, or via detailed notes on separate sheets). The point to gather as much information as you can.

12. When looking for employment, what would you say are the main qualities that prospective job seekers of the LGBTQ+ community (new or experienced person in the workspace) generally look for in any employer (today in 2022)?

Response: I believe that the life history of every person who is transgendered differs from that of another person with the same condition and these aspects determine the qualities that a prospective job seekers of the LGBTQ assess. Such difference are usually molded by the manner of their upbringing, their social environment and their financial environment. With this condition, the transgendered individuals usually enjoy the early part of their life since they are not mature enough to differentiate between them and others with normal gender identity and anatomical sex .

13. Think about employment in the public sector (e.g., government, civil service). Please describe your impressions of the advantages and disadvantages to working in the public sector as a career- path for you .

Response: I believe that everyone seeking to work in LGBTQ community in the government tends to know the difference between genders and they therefore, realize that they have a problem. The gender that these people believe to be does not match with the identity from their body expression. While at their young age, transgendered children are told that it is wrong and shameful for them to express their feelings regarding transgender. One key advantage of working as a civil servant under LGBTQ community is that one gets to interact with people from different backgrounds and improve their careers in the same field.

14. For LGBTQ+ individuals?

Response: One advantage of working for LGBTQ at individual levels is that work becomes less and promote flexibility to work on other aspects. I know that there have been various attempts to do to transition from one gender to another. This common to the transgender so they the identity of belong to one gender. There are medical steps that are followed in order for one to completely change one gender. The psychotherapy is performed in the first three months and the hormonal therapy is done which is aimed at modifying secondary sex trait.

15. When talking with your friends and community about employment (both in the public and private sectors), have you heard, and can you share, any positive stories about what LGBTQ+ individuals might be look forward to experiencing when working?

Response: I can say that the stage where stage trans-women are induced with the hormone called Oestrogen which triggers growth of breast, the thicker layer of subcutaneous fat, make skin to be soft and to trigger the movement of fats to the hip. I believe that these aspects cause excitement that leads them to try the category of LGBT just to explore life.

16. When talking with friends and community about employment (both in the public and private sectors) have you heard, and can you share, any negative stories about what LGBTQ+ individuals have had to manage?

Response: Well, the existence of LGBTQ community makes is indication that there are not only two known genders. Sometime people think that there are only two types of gender, male and female, but other factors have to existence of many other types of genders. The gender may be exhibited through many indications such as hair styles, clothing and cosmetics and even body language. This case happens mostly to women since there have rights that that allow them to live in a wide range of sexes.

17. As a person who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, when screening prospective employers online what kinds of messages do you look for that may attract you or push you away?

Response: I believe that at birth children are identified as male or female. But at a times a child is born and it gender expressions differs from the one which is assigned. The children born my bear both sexes. So, as the child develop dominant sex genes may be seen through physical development. If the transgender people seeks medical assistance in order to transition from one sex to another then they may referred to as transsexual.

18. Career paths include all of the jobs that individuals have had from a very first job to today.

a. Think about a job early in your career. What was it? When was it? Was it a positive or negative experience overall?

b. As a person who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community, while employed in early first job, can you recall moments while working there that were particularly positive for you?

What were they?

c. While employed in your first job, can you recall moments while working there that were particularly negative for you? What were they?

d. To what extent if, any, do you think early positive and negative work experiences influenced your approach to employment today?

Response: The transgendered children insist that their gender is per what they believe and not what it seems to be. Here, they refuse to succumb to the pressure to obey what others talk about regarding their gender. Their firmness in this believe is unchangeable regardless of facing ridicule from their peers’ counterparts or even from adults. However, during their stage of puberty, the transgendered children feel anguished since their bodies show changes that are unexpected. When this happens, medical help is opted in order to delay these signs until the time when they are mature enough to bear the anguish . I believe that the transgendered children would try to conform to what their normal gendered counterparts and children wish and demand just for them to be accepted. In order for them to do this, they must sought to suppress the feelings regarding the transgender. However, this is another anguish in the sense that those transgendered children finds it difficult to cope with the internal conflicts within them.

19. Is there anything else that you would like to add to help us to better understand how improve communication during employment processes between individuals of the LGBTQ+ community and prospective employers, particularly in the public sector?

Response: LGBT is a term that is used to express the situation where people have a different gender from the usual association of their gender from their birth sex. It is basically something to do with the identity. Usually, the anatomical sex of a person is defined by the identity of his or her gender. However, some people have their gender identity different from their anatomical sex. Such a situation is what is referred to as transgender and the broader category of the term is usually known as transgenderism. It explores the overview of the main issues that surrounds transsexualism. One question that people will seek to know in regard to transgender is the difference between it and the sexual orientation. The experience of gender identity and sexual orientation comes in two ways. On the other hand, the person’s sense of being himself or herself in regard to gender is gender identity. Typically, people who are attracted to either men or women before transition continues with the same feelings even after transition. Therefore, any biological man who is attracted to women before transition will be attracted to women after transition and thus, may be regarded as a lesbian.

Thank you very much for your participation!

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