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Human Resources
02 July 2024 - 2 min read
June is a month we generally associate with summer – with the longest day of the year and summer heatwaves (or maybe downpours).
If you’re working in HR, you’ll probably associate it with a rush of applications for time-off too, as the warmer weather hits!
If you’re in the LGBT+ community though, you’ll also probably associate it with Pride.
Over the last few years, many organisations have used the month of June as a time to emphasise their brand’s commitment to LGBT+ rights and to equality and diversity more generally.
How can employers go beyond Pride month to build their capacity as allies to their LGBT+ employees though, beyond just flogging them products and services? We explore how to meaningfully support LGBT+ employees this pride season in this article.
Here’s a brutal fact. For many organisations, Pride month is essentially just another marketing opportunity to cater to another valuable demographic. To many in the LGBT+ community, it can seem like it’s thought about in the same way that an event like Halloween or the Olympics is thought about – as another opportunity to capitalise on popularity for something in order to push your products and services and make money. It even has a word to describe it – pinkwashing.
Whilst you might benefit in the short-term from this, in the long-term this is an unwise decision to make. In fact, it’s an approach that is both deeply disrespectful to the LGBT+ community and the meaning behind Pride itself, and can ultimately suggest that your organisation views LGBT+ rights as disposable as a paper hat after the party.
This is why it is absolutely integral that organisations follow through gestures and warm words with meaningful action. It’s one thing to wave a Pride flag in June, when it’s easy to do this. It’s another thing to be a truly committed ally, all year around – when it’s not as easy, or as profitable, to do it. With that said:
What is Pride? Why’s it called that? Why do we celebrate it in June? If you’re not an LGBT+ person, and you’re not immersed in the community, you might not know the facts behind Pride which is completely to be expected.
To really understand why Pride matters to so many people, and to ground your organisation’s efforts in allyship, you’ll need to explore some of the history behind the celebration.
Pride essentially has its roots in a riot – The Stonewall Riot of 1969. It’s widely considered by scholars and commentators as being one of the defining events of the modern LGBT+ movement.
The Encyclopedia Britannica has a succinct analysis of the significance of the riots to the wider LGBT liberation movement:
“Although there had been other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall incident was perhaps the first time lesbians, gays, and transgender people saw the value in uniting behind a common cause. Occurring as it did in the context of the civil rights and feminist movements, the Stonewall riots became a galvanizing force.”
In 1969, in New York, it was essentially illegal to ‘engage in gay behavior in public (holding hands, kissing or dancing with someone of the same sex)’ as History.com sums it up. There were also laws that required people to wear at least three articles of clothing of their birth gender. As a result, gay bars and clubs were some of the only spaces that were relatively safe for LGBT+ people to meet, socialise and be themselves in.
On the evening of 28th June 1969, the New York City Police Department raided a gay bar in East Village – the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, a bar used by vulnerable LGBT+ people like runaways, homeless people and those from marginalised communities. The raid followed a number of others on similar clubs in the area over the previous weeks and months.
Unlike the previous raids though, where the LGBT+ people moved on from the venue had quickly disappeared, this time they stayed outside and surrounded the bar, getting visibly angry at the way that the police were treating the arrested customers. As the police used more force, events escalated and the crowd of people – which had apparently grown to 10 times the number that had been there when the raid first started – responded by booing and throwing pennies and then bottles.
The police, visibly shaken, retreated and barricaded themselves inside the bar, to await reinforcements.
Over the next few nights, Christopher Street and the surrounding area faced running battles, as the anger of marginalised LGBT+ people at their treatment in society came to a head.
For the first time in documented history, LGBT+ physically resisted – and resisted collectively. That had a huge, galvanising impact and led directly to the birth of the LGBT+ liberation movements that we know today.
In the aftermath of the riots, hundreds of LGBT+ liberation groups were formed around the US and worldwide. The next year, on the 28th June 1970, ‘Christopher Street Liberation Day’ was declared, the centrepoint of which was a march of pride – one that would go on to evolve into the modern Pride celebrations that we know today.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic that hit the LGBT+ community in the 1980s, and the devastating loss of life that it caused, led to Pride becoming more of a celebration of life.
For many people, Pride is a deeply personal and special event. It is a time when LGBT+ people can remember and honour those who came before them – who paved the way for the rights that LGBT+ people have won today in many countries around the world. It is also a time when LGBT+ people can celebrate their identities and raise awareness of issues that are still affecting them in society.
Organisations can make sure that they’re supporting LGBT+ employees by simply ensuring that they treat Pride with the respect that it deserves. It’s an event that’s used to commemorate the lives of LGBT+ people, past and present - it’s not just another opportunity to sell something. If you decide to wave a rainbow flag in June, you should be waving it for the rest of the year too.
A great way to support your LGBT+ employees is to establish some type of collective voice to allow them to offer feedback to your organisation about issues affecting them, and to give their perspective on issues relating to LGBT+ employees at your workplace.
This could take the form of a forum, committee or network, for instance.
Workplace LGBT+ networks are widely found in the public sector and many of the world’s leading private sector companies use them too, like LinkedIn, KPMG and GSk, for instance.
Spaces like this are reserved for people who identify as LGBT and can provide a safer space to discuss issues affecting them specifically in the workplace, in an environment surrounded by similar people.
As Stonewall argues, LGBT workplace networks provide:
Groups like these cost very little in terms of resources to set up and can have a real impact on everything from inclusion and engagement through to retention and productivity. Even the act of asking your LGBT employees if they think that a specific network would be useful demonstrates that you, as an employer, are thinking carefully about how to make your workplace a more inclusive place.
Making the effort to learn about current issues affecting the LGBT+ community is essential when it comes to being a truly supportive ally. The movement for LGBT+ equality is not over just because some sections of the community currently have equal marriage. To quote the Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer (a movement which inspired a lot of LGBT liberation groups) “nobody's free until everybody's free.”
Take discrimination and prejudice for instance – issues that it’s easy to think are things of the past in modern society. In the UK, hate speech and violence against LGBT people is increasing. A report released in late 2023 by the Office for National Statistics for instance (and summarised by Stonewall, here) found worrying evidence that hate crimes have been steadily increasing over the last couple of years:
Other key issues currently affecting the LGBT+ community include things like:
Whilst this list is by no means exhaustive, it does highlight some of the most pressing issues concerning the community at the moment – some which are historic issues that still haven’t been solved.
When it comes to building an inclusive workplace where every employee feels empowered to achieve their full potential, the value of learning really can’t be underestimated.
Education ultimately allows you to understand different perspectives and, when you’re trying to encourage greater inclusion and engagement of marginalised groups in organisations, changing perspectives is the way you build change. It also directly shows those marginalised groups that your organisation recognises their contribution and wants to improve conditions for them.
Examine your learning and development strategy and see where diversity and inclusion-focused sessions could help increase awareness of LGBT+ issues in your workplace.
Pride seasons is ultimately about recognising who we are as people. It can be a great time to reflect on who you are as an organisation too. By meaningfully supporting LGBT+ employees in everything you do, you’ll build an inclusive environment in your workplace, enable your employees to reach their potential and also contribute towards building a better, more tolerant world.
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