LGBTQ Cultural Competency
Cultural competency trainings are important to better understand and support the LGBTQ community as well as other communities. A great LGBTQ cultural competency training should help well-meaning cisgender heterosexual aspiring allies better interact with and support LGBTQ coworkers, employees, and customers.
This is incredibly important because an increasing number of people identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, according to the 2018 Kantar/Hornet survey, 20% of Millennials and 31% of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+. These are the largest generations in the workforce, and they want to, and expect to, work in places where they can feel safe and free from micro-aggressions. Organizations have a responsibility to educate their employees on LGBTQ issues to create a more harmonious work environment, and to better understand their LGBTQ customers.
An LGBTQ cultural competency training provides best practices in allyship to minimize micro-aggressions and help well-meaning cishet people have the right tools to be allies. This LGBTQ training can come in the form of an eLearning, an online course, or even a lunch and learn webinar. Ideally, your employees are attending a session that gives them the opportunity to ask questions, share their concerns, share their own vulnerabilities, and feel like they are in a safe space to develop these LGBTQ cultural competency tools.
Cultural competence goes beyond just putting up a rainbow and calling yourself an ally. It means understanding the terms within LGBTQ, understanding the laws and protections (or lack thereof) that LGBTQ colleagues, friends, and family face. It means being sensitive to the trauma that many folks have due to their experiences as LGBTQ people. This trauma could include discrimination, rejection from loved ones, and even assault.
LGBTQ cultural competency training considers all of these things and provides allies with tools to create spaces where LGBTQ customers, co-workers, and employees can thrive. Our LGBTQ cultural competency training, Over the Rainbow: Tools for Being an Authentic LGBTQ Ally is always tailored to the audience and has been presented to human resources professionals, senior leaders, hospitality industry professionals, customer-facing employees, and other audiences.
We provide both recommendations for systemic, policy change to ensure greater LGBTQ inclusion, but also recommendations for individual behavior change. For example, our LGBTQ cultural competency workshop provides new standards for greeting customers and teaches best practices in sharing pronouns. We also address the assumptions that are often made about the LGBTQ community, such as the common assumption that everyone is heterosexual and cisgender.
We believe in changing behavior, not beliefs, so our workshops don’t address topics like religion or politics and are instead focused on ways to be inclusive and kind. That leads to greater workplace success!