Tuesday, March 16, 2010

We Want to Hear YOUR Stories

I'd love to have a few "guest bloggers" post to this blog. So, those of you who have AIS or perhaps a related condition, if you have something you'd like to say, please leave me a comment, or email zoech4ng@yahoomail.com. I would definitely like to hear from you, and I'm sure everyone else would too.

You can remain anonymous as you like. You can tell any story you like, or talk about any topic directly or tangentially related to living with AIS or any other DSD/intersex issue. Email me your story and I will post them here, along with whatever type of credit you like. If you prefer to use a pseudonym, that's totally acceptable too.

Looking forward to hearing from several of you I hope!!

Zoe

Friday, March 5, 2010

Disclosing at Work

Have any of you had any experience disclosing your AIS or other intersex status to co-workers or managers?

At the moment, I have no one to disclose to, because I am unemployed and looking for work. However, I have had the opportunity to disclose this information in job interviews. I have not yet, for fear that I might be discriminated against, but it's something I have been thinking about should the right occasion arise.

Let's do a thought experiment: Your prospective employer asks you an interview question like, "What is the biggest obstacle you've ever had to overcome?". Now, if they want the truth, maybe being intersex would be one of the bigger obstacles in one's life. Although, we don't usually talk about our genitals or our chromosomes in those situations, do we?

Or suppose you are being interviewed for a writing job. Or in my case, a web marketing job. The prospective manager wants to know I am fully web savvy and have worked a lot with social media before. Some of my blogs, like this one, would be the perfect thing to show. Yet again, there is a risk there that this type of material would be found inappropriate at this stage in the professional game. Not to mention the bias or prejudice you might encounter when you are too frank, or too genuine.

As I have mentioned before, I have thought about totally "outing" myself in some public forum. And I probably will one day. My real name is so uncommon that there is probably only one of me out there online, and it would not be difficult for me to choose what I'd like people to know about me through a single Google search.

Any thoughts on the matter?