marcii 7.2003 « Jaaft oat. 15
mrrPTnTJnews
n a cold sunny day, Devan Deuel
walks briskly from house to
house. His hand-held computer
beeps, warning of a dog.
“That’s the sign of a gcxxl meter
reader,” Deuel says, complimenting the co-worker
who programmed the alert. “They are keeping
themselves and everyone behind them safe.”
When the 39-year-old began working at
Portland General Electric, he figured it would he
a grxrd place to transition from female to male.
The job offered a level of anonymity a desk job
could not, and the company’s policies seemed
like they might he supportive.
“They have unisex bathrooms at that build
ing," he says. “The uniform is unisex. Everything
was so perfect for me to go about it.”
In five short years, Deuel has gone from
anonymity to celebrity by being named Nation
al Meter Reader of the Year 2002.
The award from Itron Corp., a producer of
hand-held meter reading computers, judged
applicants from more than 100 companies in
the United States and Canada. Quick and accu
rate reading of gas and electric meters were two
things considered, along with customer service,
volunteer time and contribution to the commu
nity. For Deuel, much of that volunteerism is
with the queer community.
The Gresham native logged in more than
145 volunteer hours last year. Many of them
were as board president of the Live and Let Live
Club, the only queer 12-step group in Oregon.
Deuel’s supervisor, Gil Rodriguez, nominated
him for the award. He said Deuel’s strong work
ethic, accuracy, support to co-workers and pro
fessional growth in the past 1 1/2 years made him
stand out as a clear choice for the nomination. .
“It’s been a difficult year of uncertainty,”
S ervice
with
a S mile
Trans man wins
National Meter Reader
of the Year award
by Kathy Beige
Rodriguez says, referring to the
company’s affiliation with the
Enron debacle, “and to have
this bright and shiny award
shows us that we’re still doing Devan Deuel experienced a smooth transition while working
good work out in the field.”
for Portland General Electric
As part of the award, Deuel
and his partner of eight years, Brenda Schillen-
The first thing Galeforce did was get domes
berg, were flown to Florida and treated like
tic partner health insurance for employees.
celebrities at the Itron Users Conference. “It “Within two months we had domestic partner
was absolutely fun!” he smiles.
ship," Deuel says.
About a month after he began at PGE, Deuel
But Enron wanted it only for same-sex cou
was invited to help start a new group for gay and
ples. Galeforce said absolutely, not. “That’s the
lesbian employees. He agreed, and Galeforce
only point that we had to fight with them, and
was bom.
we got it,” Deuel says.
He was outed as trans at the second meeting
The group has a number of success stories:
but reports everyone was supportive. The group
incorporating gay and lesbian material in the
has about 45 members, of which nine are active.
employee orientation video, presenting diversi
ty trainings to other PGE workers and helping
“This group is very interesting,” Deuel says,
change
a policy about bereavement pay.
“because there are a lot of higher-ups in the
Galeforce members also volunteer at
group. And they like to push the envelope.”
Thanksgiving dinners, adopt a family (a lesbian
and her children) at Christmas, clean up the
yard of a man with AIDS and help low-income
people weatherize their homes. “ I’m really
proud to be a member of that group because
those nine people have made some differences
in Portland,” Deuel says.
Not everything about his transition at work
was positive, though; a few co-workers made his
life difficult. “I had half the work group calling
me ‘he’ and half the work group calling me
‘she,’ ” Deuel says.
A few accused him of getting preferential
treatment. “Looking back on it I probably
would have gone to HR first and sat down and
had some sort of a game plan,” Deuel says.
But even when things got hard, he was able
to call on the company-provided psychologist.
Just being able to tell somebody at PGE that
this was tough for him helped.
She ended up being a valuable resource
when it came time for surgery. She researched
policy and verified with human resources that
the procedure was not elective.
Deuel says of his transition at PGE: “It hasn’t
hurt me at all, and on some levels I think it’s
helped me because they see how I’ve handled it.
I helped them with policy, and 1 think they have
gained some respect out of watching me deal
with the whole thing. As far as I know, I am the
only trans person at PGE. For their first one,
they’ve done a pretty good job.”
This is not to say it was all easy. “I’ve paid a
fairly substantial price for being able to live in
my own skin," Deuel says. “It changed every
thing in my life— things that I did want to
change and many things that I didn’t.” J H
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