Pride Month: How to be an Ally at Work and the Benefits of Allyship

I don’t know about you but I have never taken more pride in being my authentic self than I do now in 2022! The PRIDE Movement is a reminder for everyone to be their truest self. In celebration of your identity, whatever that may be, I say, ‘Happy PRIDE!’

So what should we talk about this time around? Here’s a thought:

PRIDE is one of the major ways we can have important conversations about diversity and inclusion and what it means for society as a whole. And while PRIDE means different things to different people, I feel confident in saying there are a few areas where those ideas overlap—achieving equality and protecting rights and freedoms, championing all kinds of love and expression, and the importance of visibility and community.

Let’s zoom in on two keywords from above—‘visibility’ and ‘community’—and explore them in terms of allyship as a diversity and inclusion tool in the workplace. More specifically, I want to focus on the importance of allyship, how you can be a good ally for your colleagues and the benefits of doing this.

What is the meaning of allyship and how is it valuable?

I think of allyship as a human response to human differences outside ourselves. Everyone needs someone who will recognise and appreciate their existence and everything it entails. As an ally, you both recognise and support the essence of the global *LGBTQIA+ community. This means you prioritise making a collective effort to achieve gender equality and challenging social ills, such as homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, amongst others. You can be an ally who is completely outside the LGBTQIA+ community, i.e. heterosexual or cisgendered (your gender identity matches your sex at birth) or within the community (e.g. a gay person supporting a trans person or vice versa).

How to be an LGBTQIA+ ally at work

We can become allies at work by (not an exhaustive list):

1. Educating ourselves
2. Normalising the use of gender pronouns
3. Asking questions, rather than assuming
4. Using inclusive language
5. Confronting biases, regardless of the source.

What is there to gain from doing this?

The benefits are numerous, ranging from empowerment to improving self-awareness; promoting diverse thinking, dialogue, spaces and networking; and normalising challenging and changing the status quo of exclusion, isolation, fear and misinformation.

So how do you act as an ally? And if you are part of the community, what effect has allyship/an ally had on your experience in the workplace?

*We now say ‘LGBTQIA+’ instead of ‘LGBT’ because of societies’ growing awareness, understanding and inclusion of the range of sexual identities and gender expressions that exist. The spoken/written acronym has, therefore, expanded to reflect this progress and we’re happy to see it!