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2024’s Pride Month is in full swing, bringing with it the usual flurry of LGBTQ+ workplace events, training, and celebrations.
It’s a fantastic opportunity for HR teams to educate their employees on why LGBTQ+ representation and inclusion matter, and how they can be an ally to their colleagues and customers who are a part of this community.
A wonderfully wide spread of employers have already announced programs that will run across the course of June and beyond.
At DMVs in Hawaii, for example, employees will be offered training on LGBTQ+ sensitivity, giving workers advice on how to “effectively interact” with LGBTQ+ peers.
“We are prioritizing this training as part of a broader effort to help staff navigate the complexities of gender identity as well as sexual orientation, and become more competent at serving LGBTQ+ customers with care and tact,” Kim Hashiro, Oahu’s Director of the Department of Customer Services told Hawaii News Now.
Similarly, members of Colorado University’s police department (CUPD), completed a training program sponsored by Out Boulder County and offered through Safety in Pride. The sessions offered participants a basic understanding of LGBTQ+ terms and advice on how to engage and build trust. Organized by the department’s LGBTQ+ liaison, the department will also offer staff further advice and advocacy year-round.
Travel company Dream Vacations/CruiseOne has anounced educational training to franchisees who would like to deepen their understanding of and connection to the LGBTQ+ community, and workers at Block by Block, a hospitality and security company providing services within California, recently completed a three-hour sensitivity training centered on historical struggles of the community, the impact of stigma and prejudices, and key terminology.
The list, of course, could go on.
Why employers should offer LGBTQ+ sensitivity training
Under the backdrop of attacks and critique on DEI, it’s easy for many employers to shy away from providing the training and education offered by the likes of Block by Block, the CUPD, and Dream Vacations/Cruise One.
However, HR professionals must remember the route to an equitable workplace where LGBTQ+ workers feel safe, included, and on a level playing with their peers is education.
Training removes ignorance from individuals who do not understand why LGBTQ+ inclusion is so important to those within the community. It eliminates stigma and bias from decision-making processes. It offers a window into the history of the LGBTQ+ community and their historic and ongoing mistreatment.
During Block by Block’s training, for example, which focused particularly on the challenges experienced by transgender individuals including mental health difficulties during their transition - 42% of transgender adults in the US have attempted suicide - the company reports many misconceptions were addressed. 90% of its ambassadors found it beneficial, showing workers both need and will ultimately value education on LGBTQ+ issues through training.
Training must be ongoing to support LGBTQ+ inclusion
Brandon Carson, Starbucks’ Global Head of Learning, Leadership, & Cultural Experiences recently shared a powerful post about three historical stories from LGBTQ+ history that personally signify why Pride Month is so important to him: The Stonewall riots of 1969, the AIDs crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, and the fatal attack on Matthew Shepard, a gay American student at the University of Wyoming, in 1998.
“I share these stories from long ago, because for me, this is why Pride matters,” he wrote. “We celebrate Pride because people before us gave their livelihoods and some gave their lives fighting for equality and to erase hate.”
Indeed, Pride Month is an invaluable platform for all individuals to reflect on LGBTQ+ history. To celebrate progress and to remember the pain of the past. But he also makes a valuable point that it is also a time to work toward a better future. “We must constantly learn from the past, or we will be condemned to repeat it,” Carson writes.
EY’s 2024 Workplace Barometer survey finds there are nearly 14 million LGBTQ+ adults in the US. A staggering 36% of millennial LGBTQ+ employees and 40% of Gen Z LGBTQ+ employees who left their jobs said their former company was not inclusive or welcoming.
As such, employers must do more to support LGBTQ+ employees. While offering training during Pride Month is a fantastic start, it should not just be the end.
Block by Block says it will continue the training with refresher courses to maintain and further extend its workers’ sensitivity and support of the LGBTQ+ community. The CUPD declares “the advocacy and engagement to continue indefinitely.”
Just like these employers, so too should your HR, people, and learning teams come together to offer LGTBQ+ training in Pride Month and beyond.
