As the Pride Month celebrations wind down, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially for trans people who often bear the brunt of hateful and damaging rhetoric and behaviour. So, as an employer, what can you do post Pride to actually make a difference?

 It should be a given (we hope) that you're already taking every measure to ensure your trans employees feel safe, accepted, and empowered to contribute fully in their workplace. This article isn’t going to focus on this first step.

So what else can you do? What are the next steps?

Well, research from the US suggests that the number of young people identifying as trans has nearly doubled in recent years. What this means is that it’s more and more likely that people working with you will have children and loved ones who are trans. What are you doing to support these parents and carers? The current conversations around care for trans young people is particularly toxic and divisive. 

Recent guidance from the UK Government on “gender questioning children” has been strongly criticised for being unworkable and potentially harmful. The National Union of Students said this, “based on their own experiences as trans and nonbinary people, students and apprentices don’t consider the guidance to be beneficial to the wellbeing and dignity of young people and are seriously worried about the consequences its application could bring.”

Do more than host a great drinks or networking party for Pride:

• Allocate funding for your LGBTQI+ employee resources groups or staff networks to specifically support parents and carers of trans and LGBTQI+ children. Ask these groups how they’d like to spend that money.

• Host a panel or workshop with parents/careers and trans advocates sharing suggestions for how to support trans children. Ensuring these advocates are paid is one way to allocate that funding!

• Connect parents or carers to employees from the LGBTQI+ community who want to share and support. It’s really important that this is absolutely voluntary for both sides, but this can be a great way to build community and allyship for both the LGBTQI+ employees and parents/carers of LGBTQI+ children. 

Let us know on LinkedIn if there are any other ways you think you can support these families.