Celebrating Pride Month and identifying LGBTQ+ inclusive employers
As June begins, it’s time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
Throughout the month of June, Alexisse Yoo (she/her), who is a rising third-year undergraduate student and the Careers Centre’s EDI Intern, is writing a blog series on EDI-focused topics and issues in the workplace. This is the first post in that series. To read her second post, visit: Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and inclusion. To read her third post, visit Active allyship: microaggressions and discrimination in the workplace.
When I first came to St Andrews, I was afraid I might not feel comfortable being myself or being openly queer, but I feel extremely fortunate to have found an incredibly supportive and tight-knit queer community. With events throughout the year like Glitterball and BAME Student Network queer meetups, I truly feel like I have found my place here.
However, while Pride Month is a time for the celebration of our incredible community, it’s also a time to acknowledge and confront the societal and systemic issues that contribute to LGBTQ+ exclusion and discrimination.
Stonewall LGBT in Britain Work Report
These systemic issues are captured in the Stonewall LGBT in Britain Work Report, which found that:
- almost one in five LGBT staff (18 per cent) have been the target of negative comments or conduct from work colleagues in the last year because they are LGBT
- one in eight trans people (12 per cent) have been physically attacked by customers or colleagues in the last year because of being trans
- one in ten Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT staff (ten per cent) have similarly been physically attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, compared to three per cent of white LGBT staff.
While progress has been made for LGBTQ+ workplace rights, inclusion, and belonging, primarily due to the activism of trans people and people of colour within the LGBTQ+ community, it’s important to know the rights available to us and to be informed about which employers actively demonstrate LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
Your rights and identifying inclusive employers
First, it’s important to know that under the Equality Act 2010, in Scotland, England, and Wales, it’s unlawful to discriminate against someone because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Because of this, it’s illegal for an employer to ask about or speculate about your sexuality and gender identity, and you are not obligated to share any such personal information with an employer.
A helpful starting place for finding inclusive employers is Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers for LGBTQ+ people, which is compiled from the Workplace Equality Index. Stonewall also works with Proud Employers to help people find LGBTQ+ inclusive job postings.
More generally, when conducting an internship or job search, some inclusive practices to look for are gender-inclusive language in the vacancy and the company’s website, positive action statements or pledges, and guidance on including pronouns in employees’ email signatures. You can get this information by researching and asking thoughtful interview questions to learn more about an employer’s inclusive practices in the workplace.
Another good strategy is to reach out to members of your network who may have experience working with the employer. Also, you can use resources like Glassdoor to read company reviews from current and former employees.
Sharing insights
Catherine (she/her), a fourth-year student, shared some insights about her employment experiences in St Andrews and what she looks for in an employer:
If I’m working for a company, I’ll always make sure they aren’t donating to anti-LGBT organisations, and I try to work in places where I know LGBTQ+ people who feel supported in their roles. This helps me learn about management and the customers I will potentially encounter, because even if management is supportive, homophobic customers affect the work environment. So, it’s [important to] network and talk to other queer people about where they had positive or negative experiences. Also, make sure you research or ask about a dress code at interviews, because the dress codes and rules can tell you a lot [about the workplace’s culture and enforcement of gender norms]. And, look around for pride flags in the workplace. Many businesses in St Andrews, for example, have them displayed.
To everyone in the LGBTQ+ community this Pride Month, I hope this is a joyous and safe month for you, whether you are out publicly, privately, or not at all. If you want to discuss any of the topics in this blog post, or being open about your identities at work, please book an appointment with a careers adviser.