Four Ways Your Business Can Celebrate LGBT+ History Month
LGBT+ History Month is just around the corner for the UK, but have you got a plan for celebrating this key diversity and inclusion event? Showing support for the LGBT+ community in February is key for businesses that consider themselves inclusive and LGBT-friendly. However, it can sometimes be difficult to decide the best way for your company to express its support.
If you are unsure how to honour LGBT+ History Month this year, this blog post makes four suggestions for celebrating the event in an inclusive way. One thing to keep in mind when deciding how to celebrate, however, is the history of the LGBT+ community. The main way celebrating LGBT+ History Month differs from LGBT+ Pride Month is the focus on the community’s history.
Host an LGBT+ speaker to talk on LGBT+ history
Hiring LGBT+ speakers is a great way to raise the social consciousness of your business. For one, it means you will learn about the LGBT+ community and its history in an authentic way. Depending on the speaker, they may even be able to provide direct insight into events from LGBT+ history.
In addition, hiring an LGBT+ speaker directly supports the LGBT+ individual and/or organisation you have commissioned. This way, you are not only doing your part for LGBT+ History Month by educating those within your company. You are also participating in the event by showing support for the LGBT+ speaker.
Finally, hiring a real, LGBT+ speaker to inspire change in your workplace is a great way to avoid performative allyship this LGBT+ History Month. Ensuring your company pays its speakers a fair fee means you are financially supporting a member of the LGBT+ community. Therefore, hiring an LGBT+ speaker is a great way to put your money where your mouth is.
Have a diversity and inclusion audit focussing on LGBT+ inclusion
LGBT+ History Month is the perfect time to arrange a diversity and inclusion audit on your business. And this is particularly true if your audit focusses on LGBT+ inclusion within your company. Luckily, our Diversity and Inclusion Audits can be tailored to your business’ particular needs or specific topics – like the inclusion of LGBT+ individuals.
D+I Audits are a great way to increase the diversity and inclusion of a company. They provide an informed, outside perspective on a range of areas within your business. For example, our audits provide feedback on things like your hiring and onboarding processes, your company branding and the thoughts of your staff through surveys. This is in addition to helping you create new diversity and inclusion strategies and objectives.
At Your D+I, our D+I Audits are highly customisable and can be focussed specifically on LGBT+ inclusion. This means we can provide your business with a better understanding of its current position around LGBT+ inclusion, including all the above topics.
Screen a film about LGBT+ history for employees
A fun way to get your employees involved in LGBT+ History Month this year is by screening a film. Showing a film during work hours is a way to get staff excited about learning. However, ensure the film has themes of LGBT+ history. This ensures you’re educating staff on the community’s history and shows you understand the intentions of LGBT+ History Month.
There are many films that could both entertain and teach your employees about the history of the LGBT+ community. Documentaries are a great way to maximise learning, especially for those who are already somewhat aware. If your staff are mostly new to LGBT+ topics, they may benefit from a film that aims to both entertain and raise awareness.
A good documentary to try is Netflix’s Disclosure, which explores Hollywood’s depiction of transgender people and the impact this has left on trans people. If you’d like to screen something that makes your staff laugh while they learn, why not go for Pride? This comedy-drama set in the 1980s tells the true story of a group of LGBT+ activists who decide to raise money for striking miners.
Provide staff with LGBT+ inclusion training
Another great way to celebrate LGBT+ History Month is to provide your employees with training on LGBT+ inclusion. Training is a great way to celebrate any diversity and inclusion event as it creates real change within a workplace. Workshops that help staff be more considerate of one another and their differences have many benefits.
However, training staff on being more inclusive of LGBT+ people at work also prevents individuals from facing any unfair treatment. Unfortunately, discrimination against LGBT+ individuals doesn’t only exist in the past. However, you can prevent repeats of history from happening in your workplace through LGBT+ workshops.
We offer LGBT+ training workshops that get your employees informed about, and comfortable using, LGBT+ terminology. We’re always developing new things and currently have a workshop all about trans inclusion in the works.
Make a commitment to inclusion this LGBT+ History Month
There are so many ways to support LGBT+ History Month this year, and these four ideas should give you somewhere to begin. Think about your goals for increasing LGBT+ inclusion in your workplace, and make a commitment you want to act on this February.
Doing one or more of the above suggestions could be a great start to becoming an LGBT+ inclusive business. However you choose to participate, honour the event by including at least one activity related to LGBT+ history.
