Trans Activist Aydian Dowling Seeks To Rectify Anti-LGBTQ Workforce Discrimination

Once again, transgender icon, entrepreneur, and activist Aydian Dowling is digging deep within himself in an effort to help others.

Since his noble attempts to become the first trans* model on the cover of Men’s Health magazine in 2015, the 29-year-old has used his notoriety to continue shedding light on issues that affect not just the transgender community, but members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual communities as well. On Wednesday, with help from Freedom For All Americans, a “bipartisan campaign to secure full nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people nationwide,” Dowling openly shared on his YouTube channel, ALionsFears, that he was once dismissed from a job as a cake decorator simply because he is transgender.

Years before he found his path as a leader for the trans community, Aydian says that he attended a trade school for baking and did quite well for himself. In fact, the accolades he received from his education allowed him to train under several well-regarded chefs in both upstate New York and Florida, before he decided to head to Oregon with his wife, Jenilee, in 2014. She was all set in her career, thanks to earning an MSW (Masters in Social Work), and Aydian assumed that it would be easy for him to continue on with his, as well.

“[When] I [first] moved here, I had some trouble finding a job,” he stated, “but then, I got this really great opportunity at this cupcake place near where I [live]. I went in for the interview and pretty much got the job on the spot. I was super excited.”

The first couple of days in the store, Aydian says, were extremely busy, which didn’t leave time for pleasantries with the owners of the shop. By that Wednesday, however, two days before Valentine’s Day, the trio found time to get to know each other and seemed to click; so much so that the shop workers shared their odd, yet extremely dedicated religious beliefs with him.

“It was very different, to say the least,” Dowling explained, “so much so, that I can’t remember [just what it is] they called themselves.”

After sharing a website with him that explained their religion more in depth, Aydian decided to share his Point 5cc clothing site with them, which also contained several passages about his own transgender journey.

“They were giving this piece of themselves to me,” he warmly expressed, “and so, I wanted to share with them, too.”

The next morning, Aydian checked in early for work — something he did regularly — but noticed that unlike before, his bosses weren’t too thrilled to interact with him. In fact, they pretty much avoided him that entire day. Believing that it could have been due to the admission of their “weird” religion, Dowling spoke first.

“Hey, I looked at your website,” he told them, “It’s really interesting. I consider myself spiritual, but your faith sounds great.”

He then waited for them to speak on what they read on Point 5cc, but it never came.

“Your website is nice, too,” they relayed to him, before getting back to work and maintaining their distance on both that Thursday and the day after, Valentine’s Day.

When Dowling returned to work the following rainy Monday, he found the door locked, despite the fact that the bakers always left it open for him each morning. After knocking, one of the cooks peered at him from behind the counter, before calling out to their partner to answer. When they finally did, one of them blocked Aydian from entering the bakery.

“Hey,” he was told, “what are you doing here? Did you not get my email?”

It was then that Aydian realized that he had, confusingly, been fired. A friendly email to his former employers to inquire on their reasons warranted a response that he had failed to “meet the requirements stated in the employee handbook.” A follow-up email for specifics garnered the same answer, word for word.

After being reassured by his friends and former employers (whom he maintained good relationships with) that he was a model employee, Jenilee sat him down and told him the line he was never hoping to hear: His now-former bosses couldn’t deal with him being transgender.

His former employer from Florida echoed Jenilee’s statement.

“I didn’t want to say this, Aydian – but I bet they fired you because you’re transgender. There’s no other reason for you to get fired – you make four-tier wedding cakes that taste amazing and look amazing. And your job here was cupcakes.”

“It all really made me doubt myself,” Aydian said. “It made me feel like I wasn’t good at my skill. And it’s messed up to shake someone’s confidence at something they’re really good at.”

Even worse, considering it had come from people who were dealing with their own sense of “being different,” Aydian felt more alienated than he had in quite some time.

“I saw that I was not being accepted by these people – people with a somewhat unorthodox religious belief. I felt so weird, so different. It made me remember that some people just don’t like me because of who I am.”

Thanks to some transgender friends living in Oregon, Dowling was able to dust himself off and find new work — this time, as a clothing distributor — but he knows that it’s not just about being discriminated in the workforce. Everyday, people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary are shunned from being normal members of society.

“Getting and keeping jobs, using bathrooms, and having the right to be a human in every form shouldn’t be daily struggles for people – but they are,” he says. “And it’s time for that to change.”

For more information on Freedom for All Americans, click here. Watch Aydian’s video in full below.

[Photo by Aydian Dowling/Facebook]