LGBT+ History month falls in February each year and is a celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and non-binary (LGBTQ+) history, as well as a time of reflection on the history of LGBTQ+ rights.

Like other National events marking the rights of minorities within the UK community, it is important for businesses to acknowledge this month in a respectful and appropriate way.  As leaders and managers, it is your responsibility to ensure that everyone in your workplace feels supported and has a safe space to work in every day, and this month is the perfect opportunity to educate your team and start conversations around allyship.

By using this month to educate employees, management, and yourself about the LGBTQ+ community, its history, and current struggles, you are helping your business to become an accepting and inclusive, workplace where people feel like they belong. 

How can your business mark LGBT+ History Month?

• Take action to make workplaces a safe space by reviewing (or creating) your policies and protections for LGBTQ+ colleagues.
• Use this month as an opportunity to assess your culture and ensure that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is not accepted.
• Include your team in the decisions, ideas or campaigns you’re running. It’s important to accurately represent the group you’re campaigning for (especially if you don’t personally identify with it).
• Think about ways that you can make any activism meaningful rather than “performative” – in other words, changing your logo to a rainbow flag is a lovely gesture, but a better one would be implementing policies to protect your people against discrimination in the workplace.
• Provide education or point your people towards free resources in order to raise awareness about LGBTQ+ topics and issues.
• Promote the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people within the organisation by inviting these colleagues to share their experiences at meetings, events or webinars.
• Share resources internally and externally to help expand awareness of what it means to be LGBTQ+ and how this may impact their working lives.
• This year the theme is “Behind the Lens” – celebrating LGBTQ+ people’s contributions to the production of film and cinema from ‘behind the lens’.  With that in mind, consider a film night with a discussion afterwards where your team can learn more about the topic in a relaxed environment.

And remember – not everyone will want to share their own lived experiences so don’t put pressure on anyone to contribute. Search for books and films to educate yourself as well.

We offer a range of free and subsidised support and resources to teams who are seeking to improve their Diversity and Inclusion Policies in the workplace.  Please get in touch to find out more.