Equitable Horizons: Conversations on Workplace Inclusion

Episode Transcript
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Cyn (She/Her) (00:01):
Welcome to TransCanada Stories. I'm Cyn
Sweeney, and I'm joined by thelovely co host, Emma Stanley.
And in TransCanada Stories,we're all about going beyond
binary and telling stories oftrans people as people. Welcome
to the show.

Emma (She/Her) (00:21):
So welcome to TransCanada Stories. Today, we
have in studio by Zoom, B Adair.B recently relocated to, Nova
Scotia and is having a chat withus today. Hello, B.

B (He/They) (00:37):
Hello. How is it going?

It's going really well. Tell us a little
bit about you.

B (He/They) (00:44):
Well, my name is B. That is literally my entire name
legally and everything.

Can you spell it for me?

B (He/They) (00:51):
B. Perfect.

That's good because I've had a few people
ask me about you, and they'vespelled it differently. You wait
it longer. Honest.

B (He/They) (00:58):
It would be surprised. People are like, so
is it, like, b e e b e bumble? Be. a. I actually, was checking
into a hotel once, and theperson behind the counter was
like, oh, I'm really sorry.
For whatever reason, when we gotyour reservation, they only
wrote down your initial. And Iwas like, no. That's my name.

(01:19):
And they looked at me, and Ipulled out my driver's license.
And she goes, who's your mother?
Like, what were they thinking?Am.

Yeah. I chose my name.

B (He/They) (01:32):
No? Exactly. I sure did.

I own

B (He/They) (01:35):
it. I've had so many people ask me about
siblings if I have, like,sibling a and sibling c, and I'm
like, no. Just me.

Oh, that's great. You know, actually, we did a we
did a recording with b. B and I,we did a recording, like, I it
was a few weeks ago, and Iactually tried to, title it with
an a and so I could shorten itto the an a with b and c, which
is

B (He/They) (02:03):
q and a with b and c. Yeah. There

you go. Yeah. We gotta get the e in there
somewhere. Good. No.
Well, it's great becauseTransCanada story. We took a
little bit of a break over theholiday season. It's now we're
almost to the end of February,and, Emma and I are up here in
Halifax. B is I'm not gonna sayin Yarmouth. You are over by the
Digby region, which is verydifferent.
And you have made it here by wayof Alberta, a bright shiny

(02:29):
rainbow of a province, and maybeyou can tell us about your
journey

B (He/They) (02:33):
here. Yes. It was a long time coming. My partner and
I lived in Alberta. I mean, Igrew up there.
That's where I was born andraised, but my partner's from
New York City. So they movedfrom New York City to Alberta in
a very, very, very small town,literally the most conservative
riding federal riding in all ofCanada. So it's been a long time

(02:56):
coming, and being queer andtrans, neurodivergent, all of
these different things in asmall town in a very
conservative and religious areais not the funnest time. So we
decided, hey. Let's let's move.
Let's get out of here. So we putan offer in on a house here.
We're about 25 minutes outsideDigby, and we were here, like, a

(03:21):
month and a half later. So it'sit was a quick process.

What made you pick, like, the Atlantic region?
Because you are about, like, Iguess, in Canada, maybe as far
away from where you were as youcan be, unless maybe you could
go north. But what made you pickEast Coast?

B (He/They) (03:37):
Well, we wanted to be on the coast, on a coast. I
have some family in in BC, sowe, you know, we were looking
around, but nobody can afford tolive in BC unless they make a
$1,000,000 every 2 weeks. So sowe, you know, we expanded our
our search a little bit more,and I had heard amazing things

(03:58):
about, Nova Scotia. I'd neverbeen here before. So it was kind
of a gigantic leap of faithslash experiment, but we're
really enjoying it.
We were able to get, like, agood chunk of property, and we
live in the forest in a logcabin, and our dogs are soaking
it up.

Living the dream. That sounds great. And you're
close to the ocean as well?

B (He/They) (04:22):
Yeah. We well, we're, like, on Saint Mary what
is it? Saint Mary's? Oh, SaintMary's Bay, I think. Something.
Saint Mary's Bay, I think. Ineed to learn this more. But, so
it's not technically the ocean,but it's the ocean in my eyes.
And it's like a 3 minute drivedown the road. So it's pretty
cool.

Wonderful. Love it.
You can smell the you can smell the salty air.

Mhmm. Yes.

Probably.

B (He/They) (04:48):
And I've discovered a a new hobby of beachcombing
and rock hounding. I am amagpie, so everything.

Bringing home half the beach,

B (He/They) (05:01):
Yes!

is a time honored tradition on the East
Coast. Yes. Every time we havefamily visiting from anywhere
else, at at my place, they theyhave to go down to the beach,
and they have they come backwith the bulging pockets. Yep.
You have to go.

B (He/They) (05:15):
To bring buckets with me. I don't know where I'm
gonna put them all. Our house isquite small, but I will find a
space.

So So I'm kinda curious, Bea. You work in
Equity Work, and I'm curious ifthere's been a change in your
clients, not just in terms of ofthe reception, but of the needs,
from coast to coast. Is theresomething fundamentally
different about, differentplaces and how those places

(05:47):
react to equity?

B (He/They) (05:50):
I mean, I'm still pretty new here. We've only been
here. I don't think it's evenbeen 3 months yet. So I haven't
done a ton of work that'sspecific to Nova Scotia, but,
we're in a very rural area. So,you know, it it comes with very
similar challenges where a lotof people, you know, they're not

(06:10):
yet aware of the importance ofthis work.
And, you know, you know,everyone's heard of equity,
diversity, inclusion. You youcan't not know what that means,
but there's there's still a goodpercentage of the population
that are, like, pretty diverse.Look at us. We all get along.
Everything's fine.
So there's there's a lot of workto do in beginning those

(06:34):
conversations. And seeing as Ilived in the middle of nowhere
in Alberta, that was my that wasmy primary work that I did is,
you know, starting theseconversations and, helping teams
discover that buy in and thatreason that why. Right? So it's
it can be tough conversations.You know, you meet a lot of

(06:55):
resistance at times, but for themost part, it's you know, you
get to you get to open people'seyes for the first time, and
that's kind of awesome.
So it's I imagine there will bea lot of parallels to that. I've
worked with, you know, everyeverything from, like, a
reperson staff up to largeorganizations, you know,

(07:16):
governments and all kinds ofdifferent groups. So it's it's a
little bit different dependingon, you know, where they're at
in their journey and and, youknow, what concepts we need to
introduce at what time. And, youknow, a lot of my previous
projects have been starting fromthe absolute ground and

(07:38):
developing a vocabulary andsharing, learning, and creating
this whole new thing for peopleto look at and and try and
understand. Right?
And then you can dive into alittle bit more, you know, about
prejudice and, you know,privilege and bias and all of
these things where you have tostart doing the hard work.

(08:01):
There's a lot of reflection andunderstanding, you know, that
privilege doesn't mean thateverything's perfect. Privilege
simply means that in one tinypiece of your identity, you're
not oppressed, right, or not asoppressed as somebody else.
Everything's a spectrum. Right?
There's no such thing assomebody who's a 100% oppressed,

(08:21):
and there's no such thing aspeople who are a 100%
privileged. There are a goodhandful of people on very close
to the ends on either side. But,you know, so part of that buy in
is is helping people understandthat this work impacts
everybody. It's not, you know,we have to do this work to make

(08:44):
others feel good or to helpthem, you know, feel like they
fit in. It's literally about allof us.
Not everybody. Kind of amisconception about what
diversity means. Right?Diversity is just there. You put
2 people in a room, and it'slike, boom.
There's diversity. Even ifthey're identical twins. Right?
There's we're all different. Weall perceive things differently.

(09:07):
We all have differentexperiences, and that that
shapes who we are, and thataffects, you know, how we, you
know, translate things in ourbrain and how we want to respond
to things and how we want toreact. So diversity is just
there. So it's not necessarilyyou know, you think of someone
who uses a mobility aid or aperson of color. Right? It's

(09:30):
it's not just that.
That's a huge part of it. Mhmm.And folks that have, you know,
visible oppression, those arethe ones that need the most
help. But everyone fits in tothat bubble somewhere. Right?
If you're a single parent, ifyou rely on public transit
because you can't drive from amedical condition or you can't

(09:52):
afford a vehicle. Right? It's

Mhmm.

B (He/They) (09:55):
Everyone has a role to play and something to gain
from doing this work, And it isreally, really cool to be able
to to share that with people andsay, no, this this is for you
also.

It's rewarding, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I feel
like it's a it's a superrewarding process. And I I
think, Emma, it was you thattold me we had heard somewhere
along the way, but when we weretalking about inclusion, equity,
and diversity, diversity is theroom, it's the party.
And is it equity Is allowing,you know, everybody to give

(10:28):
input on what's on the playlist.And inclusion is letting
everybody have an opportunity tocome up and be the DJ or and
play the songs, you know, aswell, and kind of breaking it
down that way. But I think oftenpeople, when you're so used to
looking through one lens, theytry to simplify it and they say,
oh, you know, I'll just be niceto everybody. I'm just nice to

(10:49):
everybody. And it's letting, youknow, exactly to what you are
saying.
It's that, no, not everybody,you know, being nice to
everybody isn't taking intoaccount what each individual
person might need to fullythrive in that room with you.

B (He/They) (11:05):
Of equity versus equality. Right? Equality means
you treat everyone the exactsame way. Everyone has the exact
same access to resources. It'sit's good in theory.
You know? It's it's a good stepto make, but it's not gonna work
for everybody. I like to use theexample, you know, if I'm if I'm

(11:26):
a baseball coach

I love this one.

B (He/They) (11:28):
And I have a team of kids that wanna play this
game for the first time. And Isay, awesome. And I go to the
store, and I buy 20 ball gloves,and they're the exact same ball
gloves because I want everyoneto be treated equally. I get to
the the ball diamond and I starthanding them out, and one kid
says, hey. I'm left handed.

(11:48):
Another one said, no. No. No. II wanna I wanna be the back
catcher, and I need a specialglove. Right?
Maybe somebody doesn't have aleft hand to put a glove on.
Right? So while my intention wasreally, really good, it's not
gonna work. Right? Whereas if Igo to that first session at the

(12:08):
ball diamond and I say, hey.
Welcome, everybody. Let's talk.Tell me about you. You know, how
do you play? What position doyou like to play?
Do you throw with your righthand or your left hand? It's
about giving some thought toeach individual situation and
then being informed about, youknow, what might help them most,

(12:30):
but also talking to them andasking them, hey. What do you
need? What is gonna make you thethe best ball player that you
can be? And, you know,approaching that differently.
So, yes, it's gonna look likesomebody gets more than somebody
else, but all it is is aboutleveling the playing field.
Right? If somebody's already gota brand new glove, they don't
need one. Right? So, you know, alot of people get really

(12:53):
defensive and go, well, why didthey get this?
You You know, you think of,like, workplace accommodations.
You know? Well, why did they getto work from home? Well,
because, you know, they'rehaving some pretty awful,
stomach issues right now andcan't venture very far from the
bathroom.

Yeah. The most comprehensive unquestioned
accommodation I've ever seenafter years of working in
restaurants, smokers. They getlike, a half hour of extra
breaks every day, and nobodyasks because nobody nobody wants
to work with a smoker who hasnot had a cigarette today.

B (He/They) (13:29):
We need to flip that script and say, do you
wanna work with someone who'sgonna pass out halfway through
your shift, and then you have todeal with a medical emergency
also? Because that's thealternative.

When you talked about ADHD in the beginning, you
know, something that I we doreally well here and I'm super
proud of is that well, first ofall, like, we're an office full
of ADHD. There's a lot a lot ofthat happening. And we're all
very different on what we needwith that and what we need to
work as well. And, like, withEmma and I, like, we just
recognize that sometimes, like,yeah, it's a work from home day
or sometimes I just need to, youknow, one of us just needs to

(14:02):
decompress and and take a day.And it's like, okay, well, we're
not gonna we're not gonnacounter check all of the hours
specifically.
Right, Emma? Because it's like,when you come back or when I
come back, we're like 3 times asproductive because set back. And
there's that miss, you know,that misinterpretation that, you
know, ADHD people are lazy, andit's not. It's just when they're

(14:24):
going, they are productive, like5 people in the room. And if
they need to, like, unpack and,like, recharge for a little bit,
it's well worth giving them theopportunity to do that.

Well, and there's there's a perception
with accommodations that they'reentirely reactive, that the
accommodation happens after. Buttaking, taking the scheduling
here at Simply Good Form, forexample, if I know that I can
take a day off, then I also knowthat it it is okay for me to
burn super hard today. So if I'min a groove and something's

(14:58):
going well and I end up working10 hours today or 12 hours
today, like, with breaks,etcetera, but basically, I'm on
for that long. I know I can dothat knowing that tomorrow if I
need to, I can rest, in a moretypical and more rigid system. I
would never do that because I'mnot going to work late today

(15:19):
because I have to be into workat 8 o'clock tomorrow.
And with any kind ofaccommodation, it gives people
this feeling of safety, whichallows them to push harder when
they have the opportunity to dothat.

B (He/They) (15:36):
Absolutely. And a huge part of that process is,
you know, examining ourdefinition of what
professionalism is andchallenging really colonial
processes and, you know, thatthat corporate garbage about,

(15:57):
you know, you need to work from9 to 5. You get 15 minutes
break. You get half an hourlunch. That's it.
That's all. Who is thatbenefiting?

Oh, I remember working jobs like that where I'd
I'd have a timer. I'd had 15minutes for a break, and you can
really do nothing in 15 minutes.Like, it's actually I remember
feeling more stressful because Iremember as a teenager, I
remember, oh, I'm kindahungover, and I need, like, I
need a little hunger. Now that'smy own fault coming to that
hangover. But if I had had ahalf an hour, I would have been

(16:28):
much better going back in.
Okay. That's not a good example.But, like, we're all everyone's
nodding their head out therethat's listening, going, they've
been in that situation. I'msure.

B (He/They) (16:37):
But it's it's that exact same thing, though. Right?
Like, would you rather have anemployee who can't function
because they don't have their 15minute break for another 3
hours? Or do you want them to gotake a couple of extra minutes,
refresh themselves, get a drinkof water, grab a coffee, have a

(16:58):
bite to eat, off some Tylenol,whatever that looks like, and
then come back to work and beable to function for those 3
hours. That's what everybodymisses.
Right? Accommodation isn'tgiving somebody an advantage.
It's doing yourself a favorbecause, a, you're going to get,
people working for you who say,hey. I'm taken care of. They're

(17:20):
respecting me, and theyunderstand that I have needs.
Right? And you're going to getbetter work out of them, and
they're more likely to stickaround. Right? Instead of having
people come and go and hiringand firing and retiring and all
of the things.

Exactly. It's costly. And, you know, it's yes.
Reading the room. It's like ifyou're a manager and you can
have like, bring that empathy tothe room, be able to read the
room a little bit and, again,not treat everybody equally.
Look at where they're at. You'regoing to you're gonna have a bit
more productive, happy team thatwanna work with you.

Bea and I are working together on a
presentation that we're gonna bedoing soon. It's a road map for
companies who want to approachequity work, from the
perspective of top downmanagement and with less of a
focus on, sort of personalimprovement. And it's been

(18:13):
really interesting to look atthe differences between personal
equity improvement, and thensort of spatial or
organizational equityimprovement, and the different
skill sets that those require.So, maybe, Bea, you can give us

(18:33):
an example of of the differencebetween, like, improving equity
for yourself and improvingequity in a space that you
control.

B (He/They) (18:42):
Absolutely. I think we can go back to the workplace
accommodations example. Youknow, you you put in a ramp
because you have a new employeewho uses a wheelchair. Right?
That ramp isn't going to justbenefit that one person.
Right? Maybe there's someone whobreaks their ankle, and they can

(19:04):
use the ramp because it'seasier. Right? Accommodations
aren't necessarily only forpermanent situations. You know?
You're you're going to have youknow, maybe there's somebody who
has a vision impairment, andthat ramp is going to be a lot
easier for them to navigate.Right? So when you you know, it
it comes back to that equitything again. Right? If if we

(19:27):
went from equality to equitywhere we're giving everybody
what they need, awesome.
But we can take it a stepfurther. Right? Instead of, you
know, treating each personindividually and what they need,
why don't we take a step backand look at what the systemic
problem is? Right? What's thebigger picture?
Right? Where what barriers areaffecting more people? What

(19:49):
change can we make that isn'tjust a Band Aid solution for one
one scenario or one situation?How can we make a bigger change
that's going to have a widerimpact?

I love that because you can have somebody
within an organization thatsays, yeah. I'm really
inclusive. I work well with myteam, but if you're not looking
at the bigger picture within theorganization, you know, people
move departments, you're youknow, the clients that you're
serving might be interactingwith your department one day,
but maybe in another departmentthe next, depending on how your
structure is set up. And ifyou're not taking a holistic top
down approach, inevitably,you're gonna fail, like on

(20:25):
having that good strategy inplace for your, for your
organization. I love that.

It's the problem with any system that isn't
designed to accommodate peoplewho aren't necessarily, very
good at at that activity. So ifyour entire equity strategy is
relying on a single personbecause they do a lot of out of
work hours because they have alot of lived experience that
they can bring to the table.Your strategy will fail the

(20:53):
moment that person leaves. Soyou've got all of these
companies that are doing wellfor now. But how does it move
into the future, and how does itcontinue to grow alongside the
company as the needs of thatcompany change, as the staffing
changes?
And I think that we're moving toa place where, as you said, it's

(21:17):
it's almost impossible not toknow EDIA. If you're if you're
working in HR, if you own acompany, if you deal with
staffing at all, you know thisacronym. And, for the listeners,
EDIA is, equity, diversity.

What is it again? Yeah. Equity and, equity is the
inclusion, accessibility, andacceptance if you're gonna do
the a squared. And

B (He/They) (21:47):
Really good note, actually. Can I jump in on that
real quick? Yeah. One of thebiggest concepts that people
struggle with is what whatacronym do I use? What order do
the letters go in?
What words do I need to say?What what wow. It doesn't
freaking matter. Right? It'sit's the process.

(22:07):
It's what those words mean. Itdoesn't matter what order they
go in. Right? You can use youcan make up all kinds of
acronyms, but it all means thesame thing. It means working to
make people feel like theybelong.

Exactly.

B (He/They) (22:20):
That's a really good example, like, live example
of the letters don't reallymatter. Sure. For branding,
maybe you want some consistency,but that's not the big worry we
need to have.

For people that you know, this is a good
opportunity for people thatmaybe either in an organization,
they don't have a budget. Imean, although, ideally, it'd be
great if their organization istaking it seriously and and
bring it on board. But we do getsome questions, and I thought I
would throw out a couplequestions people have sent us
this month that maybe you canthrow your lens on and and give
them some some free advice here

to help them out. Yeah. Absolutely. Mhmm.

So, with the road map, you're gonna be talking
about that what you said there,Emma, looking at the individual,
piece and then also within yourorganization, so how you can
kind of get past the systemicpiece.

Yeah. With a road map strategy, you really
wanna look past the the sort ofpersonal growth aspect. It is
wonderful to, take a course or aa piece of training and update
your language, make sure you'reon point. But if you're not
bringing those concepts intospaces you control, and and
everybody, everyone has a spacewhere they have some kind of

(23:33):
authority, whether it's at workthrough a team, or a space like
a physical space, a classroom, ahallway, a staffing room, a
janitor's closet, but also intosocial spaces. Maybe you are the
moderator on an online forum.
Maybe you are, one of the moreconsistent players in your team

(23:56):
or on your online, like, ifyou're if you're consistently
play PUBG, you can bring thatattitude. You can bring those
concept into those spaces whereyou have authority. And for a
road map strategy, that's reallymore what we're looking at. Of
course, you know, there arethere are trainings available

(24:18):
for personal growth, and and wedo provide those as well.

Okay. So question time. Couple of questions I'd
love to throw out here too. Sowe had somebody that wrote in
and they were looking for someadvice. They, were on the hiring
side.
Somebody had filled out theirapplication and they had made a
joke about the pronoun piece.They had kind of created this
unique title for themselveswhere they were, they were given

(24:44):
the opportunity to share theirpronouns. They wanted to get
some advice around how do theyword that or what is the best
way to maybe, you know, conveywhat the why behind, behind the
fact that they're gonna be, youknow, rejected for this
opportunity that they probablyotherwise would have been a shoe
in.

B (He/They) (25:04):
I think I'm a giant nerd, and I think there's always
an opportunity to learn and tohelp other people understand
situations. So the fact that,you know, this this person or
this organization doesn't wannajust say, nope. You're not hired
and leave it like that. Theywant to do an explanation and
help these people or help thisperson, you know, gain something

(25:27):
from a rather negativeexperience. So, you know, when
when you're reaching out tothem, you know, to say, hey.
We've actually chosen someoneelse. It would be as easy as
just saying, would it be okay ifI shared some of the reasons why
you weren't joy chosen? Right?And you're giving them
permission to be like, nope. Idon't care.

(25:48):
I'm not interested. But thenyou're giving yourself an
opportunity to say, look. Thisis we take, you know, inclusion
really, really seriously here.This is really important to us.
And when you filled out yourapplication and you put in x y z

(26:08):
in your pronouns, what that saysto us is that's not something
that you're taking seriously.
Right? That you you're makinglight of something that's
really, really not funny. Right?I mean, look at the world around
us right now. Right?
With all of the differentgovernments being more and more

(26:29):
conservative and basicallyencouraging violence against
trans people, like, there'sthere's no time to laugh about
that. No. Right? And you can youcan you can maybe have a moment
with them and say, yeah. Maybeyou didn't mean it in a negative
way, but we felt like we owed itto you to say, look.

(26:51):
This was the difference in youmaking this or getting this
position and you not making thisposition.

That's a great, great response, and I'm sure
they'll be really happy to hearthat. Emma, did you wanna throw
in your 2¢?

No. Honestly, I think that covers it really
nicely. If you are going to makethe decision to be in contact
with unsuccessful applicants,then, having a quick brief on on
how they could improve for nexttime would be would be ideal.

Time to take a break from this TransCanada
Stories for a TD ConnectedCommunities Moment.

TransCanada Stories are your stories, and
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We would love to hear from you.What topics would you like us to
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Follow the link in the shownotes and share with us how can
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That was a TD ConnectedCommunity moment because
community matters.

And we had somebody else that, that had
emailed in, and we're gonna booka discovery call just to give
them some advice. They work inhealth care. They are I believe
I believe they're a surgeon orthey're working in an area where
people are coming in for bonedensity scans. And they wanna

(28:12):
make their forms more inclusiveby adding pronouns. But with
bone density, as we know, it itit changes based on your
hormones.
And so for a trans person, theywanna figure out the best way to
find out, okay. So you're sexistassigned at birth. You are
you're, a gender identity now,but I guess giving an

(28:35):
opportunity to make itcomfortable for them to share
and know why they're sharing sothat it's, like, for a positive
for them. I guess trying tocreate that safe space before
people step in the room. Dowould you have any advice on on
on that or maybe how they couldgo beyond even just the pronoun
box, maybe like something theycould write around the question?

B (He/They) (28:59):
Absolutely. I think providing a little bit of
context goes a really long way.Right? Because some people will
see a form that says, you know,what was your sex assigned at
birth and instantly become,like, defensive and go, why is
it any of your business? Right?
Unless you know kind of thephysiology behind, you know,

(29:20):
how, you know, hormones affectyour bone dense density and how
growth is different between, youknow, folks of different
genders, you might not have evermade that connection before. So
just saying, hey. Because all ofour bodies are different, it's
important for us to know alittle bit more about your your

(29:41):
history. You know, you don'thave to write a whole paragraph,
but, you know, just a reallyquick explanation that just
says, this is why we're askingthis question. If you don't want
to answer this question, sure.
But it might impact the, Iguess, like, the validity Level
of service

we can. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. I think that simply separating the
identity, like, visually and inyour form, separating the
identity part. So so do you askpronouns at the top and then
later, have a these questionsare for medical purposes only.
We're we need to know your bonedensity, and some events in your

(30:26):
life can change that density.And then go through those
questions because first off,pronouns aren't going to tell
you anything about theirhormones, especially where we're
getting a greater percentage ofthe trans population who have
not gone through more than onepuberty.

(30:48):
A trans woman who, starteddidn't go through male puberty
and a trans woman who was maybea late transitioner, I'm
guessing, and and certainly notan expert here or or even well
versed, but I'm guessing that isgonna make some fairly serious
changes. You need a completemedical history, And I'm also,

(31:09):
again, guessing that there ismore than more events in a
person's life that would changethings like bone density, like a
history of of other, bonedensity related problems with
cancer, with transplants. And soit would simply be, another
medical question as part of yourmedical history. If you are on

(31:33):
HRT, when did you start would bea perfectly reasonable question
to ask in a medical setting, Andfrom there, you could
extrapolate, more informationand more specific information
about your client.

B (He/They) (31:47):
Absolutely. And, to mold something on to having just
the form. You know? You're gonnafill out this form. You're going
to go into your appointment.
They're gonna ask you questionsanyway. It happens. Right? They
wanna make sure that what's onthe paper matches what you're
going to tell them. So when youare asking these questions, you

(32:07):
know, you can you can go so farby making sure you ask everyone
those same questions.
You know? You don't wannaassume, hey. This looks like a
dude. I'm not gonna ask him ifthere's a chance that he's
pregnant. Right?
We can't make that assumptionanymore. I have a really close
friend of mine who is atransgender guy, and he just had

(32:29):
a baby. Right? You can't makethose assumptions.

And knowing that is so important. Right?

B (He/They) (32:37):
Exactly. Exactly. Because that's where a lot of
the damage is done where, youknow, we have this this
preconception, like, this isthis is what you look like. This
is what you might be.

Mhmm.

B (He/They) (32:48):
Right? So making sure that you're asking those
questions to everybody. And,yeah, you're gonna get some
really weird looks when you say,hey, mister burly mountain man.
Is there any chance that you'repregnant? You might even get
some people being offended bythat and just say, hey.
It's policy. This is justsomething we have to ask.

Yeah. And that's something that can be on a form
and say, we have to askeverybody that. I always like to
say too, you know, if you wantyou can't do it all on a form or
even, you know, on a landingpage of a website, contact this
person, and we'd be happy toexplain, you know, our inclusion

(33:29):
policies and why. But it's agood example of this person is
really wanting to do right. Itwould be great though if their
organization would also, look atthe bigger picture because, you
know, that's that patient thatcomes to this particular person
is gonna be be so lucky, but thenext time, they might go and see
somebody else.
Or who are they being passedalong? Who's the radiologist in

(33:49):
the room? Are they continuingthat, empathetic approach to to
care and and ensuring they'recreating that that safe space?
So I think that's a great it's areally good start. And we're
probably just about out of timefor here, but we've talked about
our upcoming webinar that youcan take a look in the show
notes.
I talked about pronouns on formsand baseball. And if you are

(34:12):
listening and not watching, youwill see that Bee's biased, cap
is, no. Is you're a big jaysfan. You got the blue jays cap
on with the pride ring

B (He/They) (34:24):
on the line. It's the clear one from from prides a
couple years ago, actually.

Love it. Love it.

Alright. Well, Bea, thank you so much for being
with us today. It was a pleasureto have you in, and, look
forward to working

with you.

B (He/They) (34:38):
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Okay. Well, we'll come down and collect some sea
glass with you one day.

B (He/They) (34:46):
Feels good.

It's the end of the road for this episode of
TransCanada Stories.

If you'd like more information on our other
programming, check out simplygood form dot com. We hope
you'll subscribe to our podcastand that we'll see you again
next time. Come on in. Here.

You have to meet Talbot. Here, come and say
hello.

Welcome to our live recording, Talbot. Say hi
to the crowd.

Hey, B. No. Come on in. Come on in.

B (He/They) (35:14):
Hello. How you doing? He's down

in Digby This is Talbot.

Talbot. Welcome to TransCanada Stories.

Yeah. Thank you. We're gonna have a segment of
welcome Talbot because he alwayspops in right around the same
time every morning.

Long time.

Yeah. Yeah. That's great.

B (He/They) (35:31):
Well, I wanted to remind him just,

to speak to him. Need to get okay. That's the
trans canada. That's what hedoes every time. Every time.

The trans Canada Kiss Camera.

It doesn't matter who's in the office.

B (He/They) (35:44):
I got my dog outside. That would be as close
as I get. Yeah. Yeah.

We don't mind. All all furry animals are
allowed in here.

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