Pride or Rainbow-Washing? Why Leaders Need To Be True LGBTQ+ Inclusive Allies
Lego recently introduced a new “Everyone Is Awesome” collection of rainbow-colored people. But real life is not so awesome for many LGBTQ+ employees.
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month and while the rainbows seem to be everywhere—even in the new 346-piece “Everyone Is Awesome,” rainbow-colored Lego set—the workplace is not often a safe, welcome and fair place for LGBTQ+ employees.
It’s called “rainbow-washing.”
“June is LGBTQ+ #PrideMonth and while the rainbows seem to be everywhere, the workplace is not often a safe, welcome and fair place for LGBTQ+ employees. It’s called “rainbow-washing.” #slacktivism #rainbowwashing”
According to Business2Community, “Like pinkwashing and greenwashing before it, rainbow-washing is a marketing tactic where brands commodify the support of LGBTQ+ communities during the month of June without any affirmative action to back up their promoted stance. In other words, rainbow-washing is when businesses include Pride themes in their marketing while simultaneously failing to support LGBTQ+ communities in ways that actually make a difference. It’s performative activism for commercial gain.”
Read more in Take The Lead on supporting LGBTQ workers
Authentic and systemic inclusion is urgent now as discrimination—legally and professionally—is a major concern and threat for the nearly 6% of Americans who identify as LBGTQ+. That number may be underreported as a “2018 report by the Human Rights Campaign, found that almost half (46%) of LGBTQ Americans reported being closeted in the workplace,” according to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
“Authentic and systemic inclusion is urgent now as legal and professional #discrimination is a major concern and threat for #LBGTQ+ Americans in the #workplace. ”
According to a new study from University of California-Los Angeles’ Williams Institute, 53% of LGBTQ employees across the nation surveyed said they were treated worse at work than non-LGBT employees. Twenty-three percent of non-LGBTQ persons shared that sentiment. Almost half, or 45% reported hearing anti-LGBTQ remarks at work.
Read more in Take the Lead on LGBTQIA inclusivity
CNBC reports discrimination is rampant in spite of a June 2020 Supreme Court ruling “that U.S. workers cannot be fired for being homosexual or transgender, at-will employment still gives employers opportunities to fire employees for nearly any other reason they wish to give except for race, religion, sex or national origin.”
Even President Joe Biden in the recent White House executive declaration of June as Pride Month, acknowledged, “For all of our progress, there are many States in which LGBTQ+ individuals still lack protections for fundamental rights and dignity in hospitals, schools, public accommodations, and other spaces.”
“#LGBTQ discrimination is still rampant in the United States. Even @POTUS, in the recent executive declaration of June as #PrideMonth, acknowledged, “For all of our progress, there are many States in which LGBTQ+ individuals still lack protections for fundamental rights and dignity.” ”
Biden continues, “Our Nation continues to witness a tragic spike in violence against transgender women of color. LGBTQ+ individuals — especially youth who defy sex or gender norms — face bullying and harassment in educational settings and are at a disproportionate risk of self-harm and death by suicide. Some States have chosen to actively target transgender youth through discriminatory bills that defy our Nation’s values of inclusivity and freedom for all. Our Nation also continues to face tragic levels of violence against transgender people, especially transgender women of color.”
Read more on Take The Lead on LGBTQ issues
And while popular culture highlights issues of LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace and beyond, including a recent coming out story on “NCIS: New Orleans” of actress Vanessa Ferlito portraying Tammy Gregorio telling her mother about her orientation, IRL workplace scenarios do not always have happy endings.
A recent survey of LGBTQ+ professionals by LinkedIn shows ”25% of out respondents say they have been intentionally denied career advancement opportunities (such as promotions and raises) because of their identity. A significant 31% of our respondents say they have faced blatant discrimination and microaggressions in the workplace,” CNBC reports.
Read more from Gloria Feldt on fairness issues
More than 50% of managers and employees in the LinkedIn poll say organizations and leaders need to do more training and support for LGBTQ employees. Other research reveals similar data on discrimination, discomfort and mistreatment.
“More than 50% of managers and employees in a poll by @LinkedIn say that organizations and leaders need to do more training and support for #LGBTQ employees. #workplace #inclusivity #training”
“A McKinsey research shows that three in 20 LGBTQ+ women believe that their sexual orientation will negatively affect their career advancement at work. For LGBTQ+ men, this number is even higher, at six in 20,” Forbes reports.
Employees rate their organizations accordingly. Forbes reports, “Glassdoor data shows that LGBTQ+ employees are less satisfied at work compared to their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts. LGBTQ+ employees gave their companies an average overall company rating of 3.27 stars out of 5 – that’s below the average overall rating for non-LGBTQ+ employees (3.47).”
The IBM Institute for Business Value collaborated with Oxford Economics on a recent survey on sexual orientation, gender and discrimination among employees. The news, like all other research, was not good.
USA Today reports, “Among Black LGB employees, 34% said they believed sexual orientation was the main reason for the discrimination they experienced on the job, compared with 36% of Latinos, 42% of Asians and 32% of Native American workers who felt the same.”
Listen to Take The Lead’s Pride In The Workplace podcast episode
"We found across lines of race that there was agreement ... sexual orientation was the biggest liability in terms of the discrimination experienced,’’ Deena Fidas, managing director and chief program and partnerships officer for Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, tells USA Today.
A recent executive report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says, “LGB+ and trans workers report higher levels of workplace conflict than heterosexual, cisgender workers, with 29% of heterosexual employees saying they had experienced workplace conflict in the last 12 months, compared with 40% of LGB+ employees,” according to Market Watch.
The report continues, “When conflicts occurred, many reported the issue hadn’t been fully resolved. Close to half (44%) of LGB+ workers who had experienced being undermined or humiliated said this had not been resolved, and almost four in ten said this had only been partly resolved (38%). Similarly, 23% of trans workers said they had experienced discrimination because of a protected characteristic, but over half (62%) said discrimination because of a protected characteristic had not been resolved, or only partly resolved (20%),” according to the report.
Strategies to increase inclusivity, sensitivity and awareness as well as decreasing and eliminating bias, conflict and discrimination are the goals of leaders who aim to be fair and just to all workers. The first step can be a request for pronoun preferences in communications and also in meetings, and noted in email signatures.
“Strategies to increase #inclusivity, sensitivity and awareness as well as decreasing and eliminating bias, conflict and #discrimination are the goals of #leaders who aim to be fair and just to all workers. ”
Resources are available for organizations at Out And Equal; GLAAD; The Society for Human Resource Management and several more.
“The first step towards an #inclusive #workplace can be a request for pronoun preferences in communications and also in meetings, and noted in email signatures. Resources for organizations can be found at @OutandEqual, @Glaad, @SHRM and more.”
According to the BBC, it is undeniable that “people who are perceived as falling outside of conventional gender norms are at higher risk of career-disrupting workplace harassment and discrimination. At the same time, coming out at work can have huge benefits. LGBTQ people who are more open about their identities experience have increased physical and emotional wellbeing. And, for trans people, gender affirmation can be lifesaving. In the workplace, research has found that increased authenticity around sexual orientation reduces psychological stress. Yet these benefits hinge on having a supportive professional environment, as being perceived as queer can also increase workers’ risk of experiencing bias.”
Read more in Take The Lead on best states for inclusivity
Pride Month is 30 days out of 365 each year. Being a true ally means not just posing and posting supportive messaging that is rainbow-washing. It is about making the workplace culture truly safe for everyone.
“#PrideMonth is 30 days out of 365 each year. Being a true ally means not just posing and posting supportive messaging that is #rainbowwashing. It is about making the workplace culture truly safe for everyone. #allyship”
