LGBT rights
supporters gathered in front of a J Crew clothing store in New York on Sunday –
to protest what they said are the company’s unfair and discriminatory hiring
practices – and to call attention to apparently widespread violations of New
York City laws protecting transgender workers and applicants.

The protest
was based on the findings of an investigation conducted by the group “Make the Road New York.”
The group hired two
actors – and paired each of them with a transgender counterpart of the same age
and adopted gender. They gave each of them comparable fake resumes – with the
transgender person getting slightly more experience … and sent them out into Manhattan to try to get a
variety of retail jobs. Each member of each pair entered each establishment
within 20 minutes of each other – so they were dealing with the same managers –
but they got vastly different responses. The group says nowhere was that more
evident than at J. Crew.

The
clothing store did not offer jobs to either transgender applicant, including
Julian Brolaski. He said he was treated brusquely while at the store – and said
that when he followed up — twice — he was promised callbacks that never came.
The store DID offer jobs to BOTH of the non-trans applicants.

Overall,
all four applicants applied for 66 jobs all over town. Non-transgender
applicants were offered 14. Transgender applicants – with virtually identical ages,
experiences and qualifications – were offered two.

Protesters
this weekend called on J. Crew to adopt a non-discrimination policy and include
it in all job listings and applications. A spokesman for the company did not
return OutQ’s call for comment.