Do all employers take pride in their people? In this episode we focus on the importance of organisations supporting their LGBTI+ communities and what practical steps they can take to be a more diverse and inclusive workplace.   We are joined by Lucie Garvin, Deputy Chair of the Acas LGBTI+ & Allies staff network; Tom Price who is the Senior Leader Champion for the Acas LGBTI+ & Allies staff network and Emma Dunn, Chair of a:gender, the cross-government network supporting trans and intersex staff across government. We discuss: ·        Issues affecting LGBTI+ people at work ·        How to set up an LGBTI+ & Allies staff network ·        Celebrating Pride and continued LGBTI+ support   Episode resources: Advice and guidance on how to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in your workplace: https://www.acas.org.uk/improving-equality-diversity-and-inclusion Download our free equality, diversity and inclusion policy template: https://www.acas.org.uk/equality-policy-template Emma Dunn’s blog on the Equality Act 2010: https://www.acas.org.uk/the-equality-act-2010-agender-and-me Lucie Garvin’s blog on how Acas relaunched it’s LGBTI+ & Allies staff network: https://www.acas.org.uk/lucie-garvin-our-network-is-helping-to-make-lgbt-history-at-acas-0 Read the findings from research conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) on supporting trans employees in the workplace: https://www.acas.org.uk/supporting-trans-employees-in-the-workplace To contact an Acas adviser for specialist support, get in touch Transcript Chau Doan Welcome to the Acas podcast. I'm Chau Doan and today we will be discussing how we can support the LGBTI+ community within the workplace. I'm joined today by Lucie Garvin, Deputy Chair of the Acas LGBTI+ & Allies staff network; Tom Price, who is the Senior Leader Champion for the LGBTI+ & Allies staff network and Emma Dunn, Chair of a:gender the cross government network supporting trans and intersex staff across government. Thank you everyone for joining me today. Emma Dunn Hello. Lucie Garvin Hello. Tom Price Hi Chau. Chau So with many Pride events and activities being either cancelled or postponed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, today, we will be talking about how employers and organisations can support and celebrate their LGBTI+ staff at work during this challenging and unprecedented time. And also what steps they can take to make themselves a more diverse and inclusive workplace, especially employers who might have little experience or resources to do so. Although the LGBTI+ community has come a long way in terms of gaining equal rights, especially in the workplace, we know that there's still a further way to go. So let me start off first by asking, in terms of individuals who identifies themselves as trans, what can employers do to support any staff who might be transitioning or have transitioned? Emma, how could they make sure that individual’s confidentiality is protected during that period of time? Emma Well, the legislation exists, the gender recognition act that actually says that it is an offence for somebody who has in the course of their official duties come to a recognising and or an understanding of somebody else's being transgender, it's actually an offence to disclose that information to a third party. So it's really important that is understood throughout all organisations, people have to understand that, somebody's gender history, somebody status as having a transgender past or their intentions to undergo transition is an intensely personal thing. And it's not just about the personal nature of who they are at their core, it's about trans people always get asked, and intersex people always get asked those really kind of icky personal questions. And it's sort of things about what surgeries they might want, or what their g******s