In the current climate of anti-trans legislation, cutbacks on DEI efforts, and more, we need Pride more than ever. Not just splashing a rainbow on your company logo, but meaningful efforts to be inclusive and support 2SLGBTQIA employees, colleagues, customers, and suppliers.
The supportive measures and programmes you can introduce are listed in order of ease of implementation. If they were listed in order of importance, I would say inclusive washrooms and funding affirming care would have the biggest impact.
Visible support
It helps if you have a Progress Pride flag sticker in the window of your store or offices, gender neutral washrooms, mutual support groups for 2SLGBTQIA staff, and health insurance that covers gender affirming care. If you have a flagpole at your premises, flying a Progress Pride flag is awesome.
Pronouns
Encourage everyone to put their pronouns in their email signature, Slack, Zoom, or Teams profile. The aim of this is to normalize the sharing of pronouns and undermine the assumption that you can tell what pronouns someone uses by looking at them.
Donations
If you have a donation matching scheme, it helps if you make sure charities like Rainbow Railroad and trans support groups are highlighted, especially during Pride Month.
Rainbow Railroad help at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety. In countries around the world, LGBTQI+ people face violence and oppression simply because of who they love or who they are.
Policy updates
Make sure it is clear to all staff, contractors, suppliers, and visitors that homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic comments are not acceptable, along with other forms of bigotry. Make sure to offer training to ensure that staff are aware of these policies. It is especially important that this is included in onboarding training courses.
Training
Many excellent training courses in 2SLGBTQIA topics and other aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion are available, either as in-person training or online courses via providers like Udemy. We offer DEI training.
Support groups
Support groups, sometimes called employee resource groups, are a great way to make sure your 2SLGBTQIA staff feel safe and supported. Having the option to join a trade union is excellent, as trade unions have great resources and a history of supporting 2SLGBTQIA people. Having support groups and a trade union is even better. It is important to credit employees who volunteer as support group leaders or trade union representatives with the time they have spent on these activities, so that it doesn’t affect their productivity rating.
Funding gender-affirming care
In Canada, a lot of gender-affirming care is funded by provincial healthcare insurance, but not all of it. If you can find a healthcare insurance provider who will cover the aspects of care that are not included in provincial funding, it would make a huge difference.
Washrooms
If you can set up individual cubicles with a toilet and handbasin, that’s awesome, but many companies are in a rented building where the washrooms are already set up as communal. In that situation, the simplest and cheapest solution is to label them as “all gender washroom: toilet” and “all gender washroom: toilet with urinal” as in the examples below.
Company culture
The hardest thing to shift is probably company culture. Being cisgender and heterosexual is still seen as the norm, and with the current climate of rolling back 2SLGBTQIA rights in many countries, it’s going to get harder. Consider what your response would be if a 2SLGBTQIA employee calls out an aspect of your company culture. Would you support the employee, or would you think they were being unreasonable?
In Canada, the general culture seems to be shifting in favour of 2SLGBTQIA rights, but as in every society, there are groups who are pushing back against this. If you support 2SLGBTQIA rights, it’s important to take a stand – not just during Pride Month, but all year round.
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