I am against outright bans on what people can do with their own health and bodies. Unless they are doing it to kids who are, by law, incapable of informed consent.
For that reason, if a gay individual wants to try to "convert" - truly voluntarily - he or she should be allowed to do that.
I support the prohibition on imposing what adults think is good for the child on such a fundamental choice as a choice of sexual orientation.
But - I find detestable when people cave in and start changing who they are, biologically, because of professional discrimination against such people.
A young female attorney was criticized by the law firm's partner for her performance, because the pitch of her voice is "too high" - for two ears in a row.
Did the attorney sue the sucker for gender discrimination? Was she even furious?
No, she "doesn't have that type of personality. She's action-oriented."
So, instead of suing her law firm - and, of course, jeopardizing her legal career - this "action oriented" woman did the following instead:
1) she "Googled 'problems with a very high voice' and 'how to change a high voice'";
2) she looked into surgery (!) "to lower her pitch";
3) she engaged in "speech therapy" with a "speech-language PATHOLOGIST", for God's sake (being a female with a female voice is a PATHOLOGY in the legal profession), to learn to follow "speech patterns" to sound like a man.
4) she engaged in treatment used with TRANSGENDER MEN used by the speech-language pathologist to help the transgender men "have more presence" and "sound more assertive";
5) she "learned to open her throat, creating more oral resonance";
6) she learned "to adopt what she now calls her 'big voice';
7) she learned "to use fewer words" (than women normally use, as opposed to men", and "to be more direct".
As an example of that "more direct-ness", instead of POLITELY asking "Got a minute?" when she wants to talk to a colleague, she now declares, "One minute."
If a male colleague would try to summon the attention of any woman with self-respect with this "one minute (servant wench)", he will definitely not get that "one minute", or any time, for his rudeness.
"After months of practice, the difference between Hanna's "big voice" and her small one is subtle. But she says she is perceived differently now at work."
Now, Monica Hanna is an attorney admitted to practice law since 2010.
The article ran in 2014.
The article mentions that Monica Hanna had two critical annual reviews before 2014 and engaged into months of "speech-language pathology therapy" by the time the article was first published on October 1, 2014.
This beautiful young woman did not make law partner since then by trying to change herself into a man by undergoing transgender voice therapy because a law partner in her law firm criticized her for the pitch of her voice (for nothing else), but she did become now a "Senior Associate":
She is not lauded for her low-pitch voice on the firm's webpage though, and I wonder, why.
I also wonder if transgender speech therapy that Monica Hanna underwent to be successful in Kelley Drye & Warren LLP was covered by insurance.
Same as the "conversion therapy" now banned in New York, "speech-language pathology transgender therapy" teaching a young female professional how to speak like a man to succeed in her profession, should not be covered by insurance either.
And - the law firm Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP should definitely be investigated for its discriminative practices.
And, since 2010 - for 6 years now - Monica Hanna, even though lauded for her successes (while not openly praised for her efforts to change into a man, at least in how she speaks, by the use of transgender speech-language therapies) did not become a partner, even though usually successful attorneys do make partner within 3 years.
To make a partner in a law firm where, out of 138 attorneys, 116 are males (115 being white males) and only 22 are females, Monica Hanna needs to do a complete sex change - if that helps - to make partner.
Here are the heroes, the partners of Monica Hanna's law firm.
The question now is - which one out of the 116 men here is the mysoginistic assh**e who repeatedly criticized Monica Hanna's voice, to the point that she felt she will not succeed in that law firm professionally unless she engages in transgender speech therapy which will make her to speak like a man, pitch, speech patterns, rudeness and all?
The question also is, did all of the 22 women partner undergo such transgender therapies and tried to emulate a man to make partner?
You Searched For:
Position: Partner
Position: Partner
To make things worse, The American Bar Association actually helps maintain such gender discrimination.
In its paper, dated, coincidentally, also 2014 and called "Personality, Presentation, and Passion: A Female Litigator's Primer on Persuasion in the Courtroom" the American Bar Association, professional organization of individuals where each one member is sworn to uphold the law, including anti-discrimination laws, advices the following to the female attorneys only:
So, the American Bar Association thinks that, for a young FEMALE attorney being young and female - with the associated high-pitch voice natural for young females - is bad for professional success in the legal career.
Remember the times when it was considered the woman's fault that she was raped - because she allegedly wore "provocative" clothing?
Now a male judge or a male attorney-opponent can perceive a female attorney to be "flirtatious" simply because she speaks in her natural voice.
Figure.
But there is a cure to that.
Monica Hanna knows. Transgender therapy.
There are some other cures. A female voice can quickly become a male voice if the female would drink and smoke excessively.
And since around 25% of lawyers in America already do for whatever reasons, doing it to succeed in the profession will not make much of a difference.
The American Bar Association gave female attorneys therapeutic advice of more cures:
1) youth is a shortcoming that will not last - so be assured that as soon as you become old and your voice low and husky, you will be as successful (or close) to young male lawyers with baritones;
2) do not wait until you get old and then-equal to young male lawyers, make yourself into men now, speak like them! - and
3) the technique to do that is "to breathe slowly and deliberately" - and, unless the judge ill perceive you as a rhinoceros preparing to charge - like this one - you will be perceived as if you are a male.
But - there is a problem here - male attorneys will still have an advantage over you, female attorneys, even with your brand new rhino voice in a sparrow's body: THEIR BEARDS!!!
Because, "even today, many would argue that a proper beard makes a man more intimidating to his enemies. And since lawyering is about 90% mental, you should all listen up".
Imagine if all female associates in Kelley Drye Warren LLP will now go under a hormone therapy to kill two birds with one stone - make the voices lower and grow beards?
Will they make partners faster?
And what do you think will happen more - that women attorneys will try more to become men, like Monica Hanna did, or that they will sue their employers for gender discrimination?
Future will show.
