The reported assault of a transgender woman by a D.C. private security guard spurred a different security firm in the area to make some new hires.
Washington Fields Protective Services, based in Oxon Hill, Maryland, recently hired five transgender women.
Company management reached out to the nonprofit organization HIPS after hearing that a security guard at the Giant grocery store on H Street NE was charged in May with assaulting a transgender woman who was using the women's restroom.
"It opened up new doors," Deputy Chief Isaiah Reeves of Washington Fields said about his company hiring the women.
Finding good employment can be especially difficult as a transgender woman, new hire Staci Daniels said.
"Sometimes the employer may not generally like your look and they may say, 'You're going to provide a distraction to their company,'" she said.
Transgender workers report unemployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy organization.
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Daniels and four future colleagues start their training later this month. They previously were unemployed and said they have high hopes for the opportunity.
"I want to move up and just go higher and higher into the ranks until I can't go anymore," new hire Alicia Wood said.
"I hope that more companies will open their doors in that way," Daniels said.
