My Disclosure Letter

I sent this to my coworkers today.

Hi everyone.

I have an announcement to make. Today I begin my new life (very much like the old one in most respects) as Diane.

I have struggled with my gender identity my whole life. I have been by turns angry, sad, depressed and desperately lonely. I grew up thinking there was no one like me. A couple of years ago, things got to a critical point, and I had to make this decision in order to have any hope of being happy. Since embarking on this journey, I have become happier and much more optimistic about life.

Please understand that I am not doing this to call attention to myself. In fact, the opposite is truer; my wish is to be unremarkable, at least in terms of my personal identity. I dread being clocked in public as a transsexual, though I have come to realize that at least to a certain extent it is unavoidable. I know from experience that I can deal with it. I am a transsexual, and I am proud of who I am, but I am also a woman, and I would much rather be thought of as such.

As far as people who know me go, I have had zero bad experiences to this point. I am determined to make this change in the context of my current life. My feeling is and has been from the beginning that Lesley is as close to an ideal work environment as can exist for me to be in as I go through this (ongoing) process.

With that said, I am not aware of any other transpeople within the Lesley community. There are two things I’d like to say about that. First, because people like me seem to be somewhat rare, I understand if you have questions or concerns. Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have. I’ve not only been living this for a little while now, I have done quite a bit of research and have resources to go to if you have a question I can’t immediately answer.

Second, if you do know other transfolk, especially people within Lesley, great! Tell them about me, and me about them. I really want to network.

And finally, I would like to state my hope that my transition from male to female will have little to no impact on the workings of eLIS (the department I work in). I know I don’t see most of you from day to day, but I have found you all to be friendly, professional, intelligent, and caring. Please know that I am really proud to have each of you as coworkers.

Thanks for reading this. Please don’t hesitate to approach me if you have any concerns at all.

With respect,
--Diane Griffin