Out Leadership is proud to share this guide as a resource for the business community to better understand transgender issues and how to support the transgender community who are our employees, our children, our family, and our friends.
Three years ago, Out Leadership created and launched the first and largest global corporate statement for transgender equality. This guide continues that focus. The genesis of this guide followed many phone calls and emails from senior business leaders at Out Leadership member firms asking for our help to understand the issues facing transgender people in America. With the intensifying attacks on transgender rights, targeting the most vulnerable among us, trans youth, it is more important than ever for us to ask questions, educate ourselves, and work together to fight discriminatory legislative bills and enact policies to protect and support all members of the LGBTQ+ community.
By May 15th, 2021, just five months into the current legislative session, there have been over 130 bills filed in 35 U.S. State Houses. This represents an intense escalation in anti-transgender discrimination. These proposals – whether they pass or fail – are doing real harm to some of the most vulnerable and under-protected people in the country. This impacts not only the wellbeing of youth, but also their families who are ostracized for supporting their children, and who may move to more inclusive communities for the wellbeing and protection of their children. Much of the current proposed legislation around the U.S. specifically targets the physical and mental wellbeing of transgender youth. Despite human rights and medical organizations overwhelmingly condemning these bills as unnecessary and explicitly discriminatory, several of these bills have already been passed into law.
While the vast number of bills being proposed can feel overwhelming, business leaders around the country have spoken out forcefully about the harm that this explicit discrimination would do to their employees, their teams, and their ability to hire the best talent. Business leaders are rightly concerned about how to uphold their corporate ethics and meet employee needs in states that have enacted such discriminatory laws. Our society increasingly looks to leaders and businesses to make visible and vocal stances on these issues.
Out Leadership’s hope is that this guide can help business leaders recognize the importance of protecting the rights of transgender people and provide direction and tangible steps that business leaders can take today. We hope that the information in this guide will empower leaders to take action and recognize the power they hold to make a difference.
Download the Business Leaders Guide to Transgender Equality in the US
This guide has been created from the combined efforts of many organizations who are doing the work, year-round, to support transgender people. Out Leadership thanks them each for their commitment, dedication, and willingness to work together in creating this important document.