Human Rights Campaign estimates more than 2 million people in the United States identify as trans or non-binary. Trans people face unique day to day challenges. From lack of legal protections to discrimination and microaggressions at the workplace—it’s important to understand the scope of issues that trans people encounter in order to show true allyship.
As leaders, it’s crucial to have the right tools, resources, and solutions when it comes to the safety and wellbeing of your transgender and non-binary employees. And with so much information out there, it can be hard to know where to look. In honor of Transgender Awareness Week, we’ve put together a list of valuable resources for you.
This article from CNN offers ways to help foster understanding, recognition and support for a community facing steep obstacles. Specifically, they discuss mental health challenges trans individuals deal with, and list resources that focus on helping protect the transgender population from violence. Some key takeaways:
✔️ Transgender adults experience higher levels of depression and anxiety than their peers
✔️ 2021 was also a record-breaking year for anti-transgender legislation
✔️ Transgender people are more than four times likely to be victims of violent crime than cisgender people
This Out & Equal resource is focused on practical guidance on how to implement successful practices and norms around pronouns in workplaces. Encouraging the use of inclusive pronoun practices in the workplace is crucial in building organizational cultures of respect and belonging. Some key takeaways:
✔️ Using someone’s proper pronouns makes a difference in the mental health and well-being of everyone, particularly transgender individuals
✔️ One in three adults (ages 18-29) know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns
✔️ 65% of respondents agree that employers should intervene when an employee regularly misuses a co-worker’s pronouns or chosen name
Watch this scene from a real Kantola course
This clip from our most recent award-winning harassment-prevention course addresses the importance of inclusive managers, while hearing from a GNC (gender-non-conforming) individual firsthand.
This article from Harvard Business Review presents seven allyship behaviors that employees at any level can engage in to nurture inclusion in their workplace. Some key takeaways:
✔️ Allyship is not performative: it’s about lifting others and creating platforms for them so that their voices are heard
✔️ Enabling allyship at work requires honest and open conversations, and those require psychological safety: a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking
✔️ To help overcome the fear of being uncomfortable or saying the wrong thing, allies need to embrace their own vulnerability and work with others to identify their own biases—especially the unconscious ones
It turns out that there’s plenty each one of us can do. In order to overcome the fears that perpetuate exclusion, we can start with ourselves—with deep curiosity, honest introspection, and humble acknowledgement. Then we can be deliberate about taking steps to include others through behaviors driven by empathy, authenticity, vulnerability, and courage.
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