Imagine it.
You are up all night trading the Asian markets and you suddenly think to yourself, “You know what? I’m sick of being a dude. I want to join Team Vajayjay!”
Well thanks to Goldman Sachs, now you can!
Goldman added health-insurance coverage of sex reassignment surgery as part of a push last year to attract top talent and recruit and retain a more diverse workforce, the company said.
Pause. Just hold on a sec.
I just discovered something about myself. I just realized that I harbor a belief about what constitutes “top talent” at an aggressive, conservative institution like Goldman Sachs – and it does not include transgendered people. When I think Top Talent, I think of men (mostly) who are extremely smart, competent, and, most of all, aggressive. I don’t associate those traits – or the trading culture itself – with transgendered people. Perhaps that’s my own limitation, but its not entirely without merit. One transsexual whose blog I read often is Alex Billings. I discovered her blog through Sheila and I’m really grateful for that connection because it opened my eyes to a certain worldview I never knew existed. I don’t want to use Alex as an example of what all transgenders are like (preposterous), but I will say that I think her background is typical in difficulty if not the specifics of people who go through this sort of gender displacement: she was cast out at a young age, was terrorized for her sexuality, became a prostitute, was infected with HIV. While it is authentic and tragic and real, it is not the trajectory of a trader with an old-guard Wall Street firm. Maybe there are perfectly happy people who grow up in middle America knowing that as soon as they get out of college they’re applying at Goldman and they’re getting a sex change.
I’m trying so hard to be fair here but this is just very foreign to me. I think of transgenders as quiet, terrorized people who just want to be left alone. Am I wrong?
While I struggle with trying to understand the transsexual trader’s motivation, I’m equally at a loss to explain why Goldman Sachs (and Bank of America) are doing this. Does GS really believe there is some secret pool of transgendered traders on Wall Street, like an underground cult? (I so need to write that book). The “retain a more diverse workforce” I can believe – though I’m astonished at the lengths they will go in pursuit of their commitment. The whole thing puzzles me.
In any case, those underground trannies better get used to making less. Not because of that old feminist argument that women only make a fraction of what men earn, but because a recent study showed that traders with more testosterone earn much more than traders with low testosterone. So Jon/Joan, though the surgery itself might be complements of Goldman Sachs, your income is about to decrease significantly. That means some serious life changes. Not just having an innie where before you had an outtie, but actually having to live with less money. That is when you’ll realize that you’re a totally different person. Let me spell it out for you: you will need to sell the 250K parking space for the Benz and the starter mansion in Westchester County. Don’t worry, you can still afford a small loft in SoHo (if that’s not a bit trite), and you’ll be closer to the clubs where you can go out and show off that new body. But you probably won’t get to go out much anyway since you’ll be stuck at the office all night, grinding out trades on the Asian markets while your friends get married and have babies. Only now, you’ll be doing it for less money. Congrats on your decision.
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