Editor's note: This piece was originally published in June 2023 and has been updated to reflect Indeed's pledge to assist LBGTQ+ employees.
In July, Indeed announced a new gender-affirming care relocation benefit for its U.S.-based employees. They will receive $10,000 toward relocation expenses if they or their immediate family members need to move away from a jurisdiction or state that has passed a law that limits or eliminates access to gender-affirming services for children or adults. This also applies to laws that threaten action for providing support for children who are gender non-conforming, transgender or non-binary.
In the early days of her corporate career, RaShawn Hawkins’ office was bare. The photos of loved ones that would typically adorn a work desk were absent.
One day, a manager asked why she didn’t display any pictures. Hawkins explained that as a Black queer woman, she had been professionally coached in the past to not be public about her identity at work. “When it came to the workplace, I didn’t feel I could be all of those identities at the same time,” Hawkins says.
Her manager was appalled and implored Hawkins to not hide who she was at work.
“It was the first time a senior leader had encouraged me to be authentic,” Hawkins says. “Once I got that push, I leaned into it.” She began to decorate her office with snapshots and rainbow flags. She encouraged her company to sponsor a local Pride event, and eventually started an LGBTQ+ employee resource group (ERG) to support other out employees.
“This all happened because I felt confident in my direct leadership,” says Hawkins, who is now director of the Workplace Equality Program at the Human Rights Campaign. “They had established an affirming workplace.”
On the eve of Pride Month, Hawkins joined two LGBTQ+ leaders from Indeed and Glassdoor for a wide-ranging discussion on how company leaders can move beyond performative allyship and truly show up — especially now, amid restrictive legislation surrounding LGBTQ+ rights.
Conor Pfeifer is an account executive in enterprise sales for Indeed, and a co-chair for the Americas in the organization’s Pride ERG. Indeed offices are located minutes away from the Texas Capitol, where legislators just passed a bill banning transition-related care for transgender minors. Pfeifer is working with Indeed leadership to support LGBTQ+ colleagues who are impacted.
Ains Hill is the director of global workplace experience at Glassdoor — which is owned by the same parent company as Indeed — and a former co-chair for Glassdoor’s Pride ERG. The ERG is where he has felt the most emotionally safe at work; and as a trans man, he is an advocate of using ERGs to build community at work — especially in the difficult times we live in now. This conversation has been edited and condensed.
Indeed: Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is being proposed at an increased clip, with more than 520 bills introduced in state legislatures so far this year, up from 315 bills in all of 2022. Do you feel we’re living through a backlash to the hard-fought wins LGBTQ+ advocates have achieved in recent years?
Conor Pfeifer: If you look at history, whenever there’s been progress, there’s an accompanying backlash to that progress. I feel that’s part of what’s happening right now. And we’re in the election cycle, so certain politicians are banking on that being a vote-getter.
Ains Hill: I agree that it’s part of a political strategy to rally voters around a cause. There’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation in the general population about what the trans experience is. And things do feel more dangerous for me, as a trans person.
I think most people in the transgender, gender-nonconforming community feel that danger as well. The transphobic talking points being used against us in the media are more than just disparaging. They’re being used to justify violence against us.
And it doesn’t seem these anti-LGBTQ+ actors are new. They’ve always been present; they just changed strategies.
RaShawn Hawkins: Yes, this proliferation of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is being coordinated by well-funded organizations that have sought to roll back civil rights in general — but especially for LGBTQ+ people — for decades.
It’s the same group that fought against marriage equality, and they lost. So now they’re finding another wedge issue and attacking the most vulnerable in our community. The scope of what they’re doing right now is unprecedented.
When I think of the most vulnerable in our community, I think of trans youth. The vast majority of anti-trans legislation seems to target young people, denying them gender-affirming health care. What’s the impact of this?
Hill: The messaging being put out there is that trans, gender-nonconforming people shouldn’t exist, and the youth hear that message loud and clear. I can’t imagine transitioning at this moment and hearing those messages constantly. When I was transitioning, it was hard enough without that worldview being projected upon me constantly. It can be hard to stay focused when your community is being attacked in such a cruel way.
Pfeifer: The actions politicians are taking right now have real-life consequences. There’s a human cost to it. The mental health of young people can be drastically impacted if they cannot get gender-affirming health care. We have employees in Texas who are considering uprooting their lives due to the fallout of these political decisions. The cruelty is the point of these laws — but we can fight back.
In a recent Indeed survey, over half of LGBTQ+ respondents said they’re treated differently in their workplace compared to their straight and cisgender peers. And more than half of LGBTQ+ people say they’d never apply to a job in a state with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. How can business leaders show up for their employees and strive for more inclusive environments?
Hawkins: I believe in empowering the ERGs, distributing factual resources and having conversations with your colleagues from an educated standpoint about what they need. Look at your benefits. Do you have travel and lodging accommodations for families who may be living in one of the states where gender-affirming care has been impacted, and who have to travel to get it? How can your company help them seek care for their family members or themselves? This is what employers should be looking into.
Pfeifer: Our ERG has a direct line of communication with Indeed’s leadership, and we do training on affirming all gender identities, as well as provide a Rolodex of resources to employees. We don’t always get it right, but we take feedback and do what we can to get it right.
Hill: My company’s ERG is spreading information to leaders across the company so they can better support their teams by creating inclusive team cultures. We also started a new Slack channel for parents of LGBTQ+ youth so they have a place to connect and find support.
Pfeifer: You’ll see that a lot of the transformation happening within companies doesn’t always come from the C-suite. It comes from people throughout the company who earnestly want to make real change.
Conor mentioned that companies won’t always get it right, but it’s important to keep learning. What are common missteps you see?
Hawkins: I think the most common oversight is thinking that if you change your logo to inclusive colors during Pride, then that’s enough solidarity. You should do the work internally to make sure that your LGBTQ+ employees feel safe and affirmed within your workplace.
Another is not recognizing the importance of intersectionality [the idea that race, gender, sexuality, class and other identities overlap]. That’s when you have people fall through the cracks. If you’re sincere about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, then you want every individual to feel seen and feel included. You can’t do that by making sweeping policies or initiatives that treat groups as a monolith.
Making your approach more accessible or more intersectional usually makes things easier for everyone, not just the group that needs the accommodation. I’m a hearing person, but I still appreciate subtitles. I don’t have mobility challenges, but I still appreciate curb cuts on the corner because I’m short and I trip a lot. Thinking about intersectionality and accessibility makes experiences better, period.
Pfeifer: A mistake I see is leaders stopping inclusion efforts after training. Companies can have the most robust policies protecting the LGBTQ+ community, but at the end of the day, a person’s interactions will be with their managers and their co-workers. Do you know how much people are retaining from inclusion training? Are they really absorbing the information and applying it within their teams?
Hawkins: The point is to be intentional about caring about your workforce and the human capital that makes your business successful. As an employer, that should be at the center of everything you do.
There’s a belief that has prevailed for some time that “politics” don’t belong at work — a belief that feels untenable in the world we live in now. How do you push back against that?
Hawkins: There’s still a lot of talk about how the workplace should be a neutral setting. But it is important to understand that your employees and your customers don’t exist in a vacuum. They are part of communities.
We don’t expect employers to take up the mantle of educating their employees on every social justice issue, but there’s a workplace responsibility of uplifting differences and advocating for those being harmed.
Hill: For some people, work might be the only place they have access to information that’s outside of their echo chamber.
Hawkins: Right. The workplace presents a unique opportunity for exposure to new perspectives we may not have understood before. For the most part, we choose who we live with, who’s at our dinner table, who we spend time with. But in a workplace, we don’t. And I think that’s the beauty of diverse workplaces. You work alongside people who may have completely different identities from you, and it can be very humanizing. That’s why it’s crucial to keep workplaces safe and affirming for all.
Allyship is action. Here are two ways to get involved and support the LGBTQ+ community:
- For Employers: Count Us In Campaign
- Consider Supporting: The Trevor Project
Disclaimer: Any viewpoints expressed represent the views of the individual. The contents of this article do not and are not intended to constitute legal advice. Readers should consult an attorney to understand the impact of any decisions made in regard to the topics discussed in this article.
