Transgender Day of Visibility: Three steps to being a more inclusive ally, colleague, and friend

If you consider yourself an ally – ask yourself, what does allyship mean to you? However we identify our gender, our sexual orientation, our race or even our religion and political affiliations, we all need allies. Allies make spaces more inclusive for everyone.

March 31^st marks Transgender Day of Visibility, a day dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of the discrimination faced by them worldwide. As allies, this shouldn’t be the only day to consider the needs of the transgender community. There is much we can do to continue building inclusive spaces for all, including our transgender colleagues and friends, every day.

Beyond this, the 3 steps below are a starting point to help you on your journey as you continue to understand, empathize and support our transgender colleagues.

Step 1: Start with equality literacy

There is a wealth of terminology* around gender and sexual orientation that is constantly evolving. In continuing Bloomberg’s commitment to an open and inclusive workplace, we’ve outlined key terms below to help you get started. These definitions can vary by person but if we take the time to understand them, it will help facilitate authentic dialogue and foster deeper relationships for a more supportive workplace.

Agender: A person who does not identify with any gender.

Cisgender: A term used to describe an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Gender identity: One’s deeply held personal, internal sense of being male, female, some of both, or neither.

Nonbinary: A person who identifies as neither exclusively a man nor exclusively a woman. They may identify as partially a man, or partially a woman, or a combination, or neither. Nonbinary people may or may not identify as transgender.

Pronouns: The set of pronouns that a person uses to describe themselves, and that they should be described by. (e.g., him, he, she, her, ze, hir, they).

Transgender: A person whose gender identity or expression is different from their gender assigned at birth.

Transition: The process one goes through to discover and/or affirm their gender identity. This can, but does not always, include taking hormones, having surgeries, or going through therapy.

* More working definitions here.

Step 2: Understand what makes an ally

Allies are constantly learning.

Allies are people who don’t necessarily know all that can be known on LGBTQ+ issues or about people who are LGBTQ+, but they’re proactive and take steps to educate themselves.

Allies listen.

Allies may not always know the right thing to say but they’re open to listening without judgement or criticism.

Allies address their barriers.

Allies are people who might have to grapple with some barriers to being openly and actively supportive of people who are LGBTQ+, and they’re willing to take on the challenge.

Allies are people who know that “support” comes in many forms.

There is no one way to be an ally and everyone gets to adopt the term in a different way. It can mean expressing support in more personal ways through the language we use, conversations we choose to have, and signals that we send. It can also mean something more public (think marching in a Pride celebration with a sign reading, “PROUD ALLY”). True allies know that all aspects of ally expression are important, effective, and should be valued equally.

Step 3: Stay educated and get involved

There are simple and impactful things we all can do to help members of this community thrive. As an ally, here are a few ways to stay educated and get involved.

• Join a local LGBT & Ally Community in your community or workplace
• Read The Guide to Becoming a Trans Ally from PFLAG and other Inclusion Insights.
• Ask questions and educate yourself through conversations with members of the LGBT & Ally Community

There are a variety of ways to be an active and empathetic ally, both in and outside the workplace. By taking the time to make connections and share our experiences, we can move towards deeper understanding and more inclusive spaces.

 

Bloomberg is committed to an inclusive workplace where all employees can thrive. We received a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and were designated one of the Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.