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LGBTQ Job Fair Returns To Center On Halsted

By Jessica Cabe | September 27, 2017 5:32am
 An image from the #HireTrans campaign by the Windy City Times, which rolls out in time for the third annual WERQ! LGBTQ job fair on Friday at Center on Halsted.
An image from the #HireTrans campaign by the Windy City Times, which rolls out in time for the third annual WERQ! LGBTQ job fair on Friday at Center on Halsted.
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Provided/Windy City Times

LAKEVIEW — The Windy City Times is bringing back its popular WERQ! LGBTQ job fair, which saw more than 500 attendees in 2016.

The fair is free and open to the public, with an emphasis on members of the LGBTQ community and its allies.

The job fair takes place from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday in the third-floor gym at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St.

More than 80 major corporations, small businesses, government agencies and nonprofits are set to be present at the fair, including AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Uber, Walgreens, the ACLU, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Planned Parenthood of Illinois and more.

The center's computer lab will be open during the fair so attendees can work on and print their resumes.

The event will also feature two workshops; the first will take place at 10 a.m. and will focus on transgender hiring and workplace issues, and the second will take place at noon and will focus on senior hiring issues. Both workshops will be on the second floor.

This year, the WERQ! LGBTQ job fair coincides with the launch of the Windy City Times' #HireTrans citywide campaign to encourage more employers to increase their hiring and inclusion efforts for the transgender community. It also encourages transgender and gender nonconforming individuals to take advantage of employment resources.

According to a report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, transgender people face double the rate of unemployment as the overall U.S. population, and 90 percent of transgender employees have experienced harassment or mistreatment on the job or have taken steps to avoid it.

#HireTrans Chicago is a year-long visibility campaign in traditional media, social media, online and in public places that will feature more than 60 trans and gender nonconforming people who were photographed by award-winning filmmaker Andre Perez.