Pride month is celebrated globally every June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots: one of the most famous instances of LGBTQ rebellion and resistance to discrimination and violence. Though it was certainly not the first, Stonewall served to catalyze a movement that changed LGBTQ representation forever.
Now, Pride is both a memorial for those who fought for so long and a celebration and beacon for all those to come.
For our own company, as well as our clients, Pride month gives us an opportunity to reflect on our leadership and whether we are doing enough to support our LGBTQ employees, colleagues, and clients. Despite the number of rainbow logos that pop up on LinkedIn, a 2018 study from HRC shows that there is still work to be done to support LGBTQ workers:
“46% of LGBTQ workers are closeted at work”
“1 in 5 LGBTQ workers have been told or had coworkers imply that they should dress more feminine or masculine (compared to 1 in 24 non-LGBTQ workers)”
“1 in 10 employees have heard their own supervisor make negative comments about LGBTQ people – this statistic has remained the same since our first study in 2008”
Creating a culture that is truly inclusive means that you are not just inviting diverse voices to the table, but that you are making sure that those voices are heard and respected at the same level as everyone else at the table. As a leader, it’s not just about signaling that you stand for inclusivity and belonging, it’s about holding others around you accountable as well. This creates belonging, and in order to cultivate it, you need to build a culture of psychological safety.
When we help our clients assess their culture and how well their teams are working together, we ask about five elements that make up psychological safety: trust, support, authentic self, safety, and risk.
Is there trust among your team?
Do your team members go out of their way to support one another?
Do your team members make each other feel like they can be themselves at work?
How do you treat mistakes? Are they viewed as learning opportunities or failures?
Is your team willing to take risks to make things better?
Pride can mean different things to different people in the LGBTQ community, but to me, it’s about inclusivity, visibility, representation, joy, community, and love. Those values don’t start and stop for a parade, and they certainly don’t start June 1 and end June 30. As a company, if you are looking for ways to celebrate pride, make sure that you are celebrating it year-round because even if your rainbow logo only stays up for a month, your culture affects the sense of well-being and belonging of your employees all year.
According to the same HRC study, “1 in 4 LGBTQ workers have stayed in a job primarily because the environment was very accepting of LGBTQ people,” and “1 in 10 LGBTQ workers have left a job because the environment was not very accepting of LGBTQ people.” So it is a value that creates value for your business.
So what are some ways that leaders and organizations can be allies all year?
Do you have policies and processes in place to support and protect your employees? This includes inclusive bathrooms, consistently sharing and respecting pronouns, using gender-neutral language as a default, inclusive queer and trans health care benefits, parental leave policies that support
Ensure your workplace is discrimination-free and create policies to hold employees accountable
Invest and donate to LGBTQ communities and causes
Invest in enterprise-wide education and training to create shared vocabulary and expectations. It should not be the responsibility of your LGBTQ employees to educate your workforce
If you are looking for ways to personally celebrate Pride this month, donating to LGBTQ organizations and supporting LGBTQ owned businesses is a great place to start! You can find local and online businesses through Everywhere is Queer.