Prejudices compound the struggle to find employment
In July, Florida topped the nation in job losses for the third month. The state's 
unemployment rate is the highest in 13 years. And, with over 16,000 jobs lost over the last year, the Tampa Bay area has taken the brunt of the economic downturn. The market is flooded with laid-off workers, all competing for an increasingly shrinking piece of the employment pie.
Then there's Julie Yoo.
A year ago, CL profiled the Dunedin resident as she began her transition from male (her name used to be Jim) to female (See "Tall Order, Sept. 12, 2007). At the time, she was the owner and cook of the Tarpon Diner in Tarpon Springs, and her main concern was keeping up with the breakfast orders and getting comfortable with her new gender.
But in December, disagreements with a new co-owner and a desire to get out of the restaurant industry drove her to sell the Tarpon Diner and search for a new career.
Eight months later, she's still looking.
"I just figured I'd be at the diner my whole life, and it'd be fine," Julie says over an English muffin and iced tea at a Dunedin restaurant. "Then, everything changes and I'm no longer at the diner anymore."
Despite nearly 30 years in the restaurant industry, Julie, 49, doesn't want to cook. She has problems with her right leg, damaged in a car accident years ago. Plus, sweating over a hot grill all day is no work for a lady.
"I don't know which way to go or which way ahead," she says. "I just want to be the girl, just get along and have a job."
She tried WorkNet Pinellas, an employment services and training agency. But their funding was slashed before they could place her, and other job prospects never materialized. So, last week, she began her job search anew.
It won't be easy.
"Doors don't even open in the beginning," explains Dr. Kathleen Farrell, a gender therapist who has worked with the transgender community since 1985. "There isn't a lot of receptivity."
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