Scene Four: Thursday, July 12 2007:
Including and Engaging People who are Transgender and Bisexual in the Workplace
Take Away Points: transgender and bisexual
Following is a list of take away points that are necessary when including and engaging people who are transgender or bisexual.
Take Away Points
- Include and Engage
- Address Stereotypes
- Emotional and cognitive aspects
- Best Practices
- Tools
Include and Engage
Include in and engage through policies, references, diversity training, and employee resource groups
Address Stereotypes
Perpetuate cultural competence by providing training on bisexual and transgender identities Address inappropriate stereotypes of bisexual and transgender identities that occur in the workplace context
Emotional and cognitive aspects
Ensure that diversity training addresses not only cognitive aspects of knowledge acquisition, but also engages the emotional issues, attitudes, biases and assumptions that may interfere with positive workplace environment
Best Practices
- Include in Policy
- Ensure that "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" are explicitly included in your organization's equal employment opportunity, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment policies.
- Include domestic partner benefits
- Create a comprehensive gender transition policy that addresses, at a minimum, the steps the company will take when notified of an employee's gender transition, how the company will arrange for a gender transition plan, education and training that will occur for managers and co-workers, how bathroom access will be addressed, and name and gender change in company records.
- Include in References
- Ensure that references to support for gay employees also includes bisexual and transgender employees
- If you use the acronym GLBT in text, make sure it is spelled out (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) so that readers understand that it includes bisexual and transgender employees as well.
- Diversity Training Inclusion
- Talk to your diversity trainers to ensure that they are up on the issues faced by bisexual and transgender employees
- Find out how these issues will be included in your standard diversity training.
- Address Stereotyping
- Advise managers that use of bisexual or transgender stereotypes is not an appropriate expression of opinion
- Employee Resource Groups
- Speak to GLBT Employee Resource Groups to find out how bisexual and transgender employees are specifically included and engaged
Tools
- Personal development
- Manage your anxiety
- It's okay to be anxious
- It's not okay to be impolite
- Asking nicely
- Learn comfort with difference
- Knowledge overcomes fear
- Ignoring differences increases anxiety
- Organizational change
- Check your policies
- EEO, non-discrimination, anti-harassment, domestic partner benefits
- Gender transition step-by-step
- Check your training
- Provide diversity training
- Talk to your diversity trainers
- Include cognitive and emotional training
Scene Four was the fourth session of the 2007 NW Diversity Learning Series, Life Theater - Inclusion and Engagement: Challenging and Expanding My Diversity Competency: Moving Beyond My Comfort Zone. The Series, held in Seattle, WA, is organized by The GilDeane Group, publishers of DiversityCentral.com.
Presenters were Jillian Weiss, Ph.D., J.D. Principal Consultant, Jillian T. Weiss & Associates, and Assistant Professor of Law and Society, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ, and Robyn Ochs, Ed.M., a professional speaker on bisexual identity and editor of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Boston, MA.