Talking about transparency, transgender health care coverage, and ushering out the era of table-pounding Microsoft managers with General Manager Megan Wallent, formerly known as Michael Wallent.

What are you working on right now?
Right now I'm the general manager of an unnamed group.

…Ha! Pure Microsoft!
My group is the conglomeration of a bunch of different things including Power Shell, Server Management UI, the over-all Server UI models, plus a bunch of other infrastructure pieces, plus Softgrid. So, we don't really have an all-up name for it, but the pseudo-name is WinMan.

We work in the space of server and manageability, and I'm also the business owner for MDOP, the classically named Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. And I'm also the owner of the Softgrid Work, which came from the acquisition of Softricity out of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

You've written a lot on your blog about how culturally supportive Microsoft has been during your transgender transition — I'm curious about whether your transition was financially supported by your Microsoft benefits package.
Microsoft is one of the few companies that has a transgender heathcare program. Granted, there is a $10,000 lifetime cap on transgender healthcare — which may seem like a lot, really isn't considering what's involved in transitioning.

Quite honestly, I don't want to be "Transgender Microsoft Executive Megan Wallent."

Before transitioning, you have to go to a mental health professional to sort through all this crazy stuff, and Microsoft will pay for it. For a whole bunch of complicated reasons, I decided to not ask Microsoft to pay for that for me, but they would have. When you go to your doctor, if they use the appropriate diagnosis code, that's also covered by Microsoft's transgender health care plan. They also pay for all the medications I need to take.

The other thing that gets complicated is that what they will pay for is mostly bottom surgery. Turns out that for FTM [female-to-male] transgendered folks, bottom surgery is kinda not the thing. And even increasingly for MTF [male-to-female] transpeople, bottom surgery isn't necessarily for everybody. I didn't have it. I have no plans to have it. I've been very public about that. I had facial surgery, and that's not something that benefits would cover.

Right, because that's more elective ... ish?
It raises interesting issues of what's elective. Is it elective to pass? It brings up this fundamental question: if you believe that Gender Identity Disorder is a medical issue, and you want cure people of that, what is that? Is it all about bottom surgery? I'm going to say no. Gender identity isn't about your parts, it's about how you present yourself to the world. I've had this conversation with senior folks in HR, and they get it.

Is being a female executive at Microsoft different from being a male executive -- especially given the tech industry's gender culture?
I don't know that I'm the best person to ask about that. I think that, just as issues of race and class often get confused, I think the issues of gender and presentation tend to get conflated.

From a Microsoft executive view, it's more about personality type. It's more about hard driving type-A personality as compared to the quiet leaders who can build coalitions in the background. That's not really gender-related, that's more just management style.

In the 11-plus years I've been here, I've seen the style of leadership change dramatically from the table-pounder to a very different style. The company has changed a lot.

I also have a hard time saying, "Oh, where's my membership card for the female executive club?" People have invited me to go to Women's Leadership Counsel things, and I'm like "Eek, do I really belong there?" I don't want to intrude, or say "Oh, I've had the same experiences as you and I deserve to be there now."

That's an interesting issue -- that's part of what's great about being a woman working at Microsoft is all the great educational and networking opportunities organized specifically for women.
I'm very reluctant to intrude. It's really complicated.

The transparency you've shown on your personal blog is remarkable not just in terms of your honesty about your transition, but just in terms of your transparency as a Microsoft executive. I'm thinking here of your post about the recent leadership conference in Palm Springs. How have your decisions about sharing this very personal situation been influenced by Microsoft's increasing efforts towards corporate transparency?
It's definitely related. I receive a lot of emails from readers of my blog and 'Softies around the country saying, "Wow, this is so brave." I always say thank you, but I don't particularly feel brave, because the degree of transparency that I've come to is almost required.

I'm not anonymous. This is a visible transition to go through. I lead a big team before, I'm leading the same big team after. I had a choice when I decided to come out. I could have said "This is what I'm doing, but I'm not going to talk about it. Suck it up." But if you do that, you give the power to the people outside yourself, because you no longer own the message.

Right: the conversation is going to happen regardless, and you give it away.
Exactly. So if you say, "This is what's going on, I will answer any question you have. No secrets. Bring it." There's no whisper campaign because people can just ask.

In any hard situation, you have to own it. Because if you don't, the result will be far worse than any initial backlash that you may fear.

This has been a big life lesson for me: in any hard situation, you have to own it. You have to be honest about it. You have to face up to it. Because if you don't, the result will be far worse than any initial backlash that you may fear.

Quite honestly, I don't want to be "Transgender Microsoft Executive Megan Wallent." But the way I'm going to get beyond that is answering people's questions and letting them process it. Then we can move on.

More about Megan on the web:
• Megan’s blog • Megan on ABC's Nightline • Valleywag's coverage of Megan's transition