Coming Out at Work: Personal Stories, Professional Lives

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This article originally appeared on DiversityInc.com on June 13, 2004

Being open about sexual orientation and gender identity for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) professionals often is a challenge. Whether to come out at work and when to make an announcement are personal decisions many GLBTs think about considerably. To commemorate Gay Pride Month, DiversityInc will post every Friday during June personal stories about coming out at work. Each vignette will focus on the results of when and how one person made the decision to be open in his or her professional life.

Barbara Ellen Allen
Technical Assistant, Entergy

Born as Robert ("Bob"), the road to coming out at work as transgendered for Barbara Ellen Allen has been a life-long process. "I remember at the age of 5 being dressed as a girl for Halloween," said Allen. "I felt quite normal. I still have the picture."
  
Allen was married in 1968, while attending Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa. She was a pre-med student and a devoted member of the swim team. During the first year of marriage, her wife discovered her transgendered feelings when she discovered women's clothing among Allen's possessions. Instead of immediately getting a divorce, they went to psychotherapy. Despite her personal turmoil at that time, Allen completed a bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. She even represented her college at the national diving championships. Her marriage endured the initial problems, eventually producing two daughters. Both daughters now are married and one has children of her own.

After graduation, she chose not to pursue a career in medicine. Instead, she took a job testing water chemistry in 1970 for Metropolitan Edison Company in Reading, Pa. That company merged in 1972 with other utility companies to form General Public Utilities (GPU). As a result, Allen became part of the GPU chemistry department.

When the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which was owned and operated by GPU, had its infamous partial meltdown in 1979, Allen was assigned by GPU the day after the accident to a team of chemists to determine the extent of the damage.

During these years, Allen was struggling with her gender identity in private without much support from anyone, including her wife. Her daughters were not told about her transgendered feelings until 1999. This isolation created a difficult existence for her, especially on the job. "There's definitely a macho environment [in the energy industries] that inhibits people from coming out [at work]," said Allen.

Allen took her extensive work experience to New Orleans-based Entergy in 1984. She was hired as manager of the chemistry department at its Waterford 3 nuclear-power plant, about 30 miles north of New Orleans. She now is a technical assistant at Waterford. Her duties include researching codes and standards for procurement projects.

When her marriage ended in 2000 after her wife filed for divorce, Allen finally felt that she could move forward with her life. By the end of that year, she had revealed her transgendered status at work.

"Entergy has been totally accepting [of me]," said Allen. She attributes this acceptance to many factors, including Entergy's diversity initiative.

"The CEO is very progressive. I evaluated whether to stay and reveal myself or go somewhere else and do it. In the end, I knew that here I would have the most support," she said.

Although she has had a good experience at Entergy, Allen did encounter resistance. Objections from a few women precluded her use of all women's facilities. She was forced to use the urinalysis facility as her bathroom and locker room, which required her to walk to another building that was open only during specific working hours. This situation did not change until her gender reassignment surgery in 2002.

Allen never has made it her goal to have everyone know about her personal history, but she also no longer feels the need to hide it from people. "A secret like that is very hard to keep," said Allen. "When employees are allowed to be themselves, it plays a big part in getting the best out of them professionally."

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