BY AJ TRAGER
Bill Huffaker, Amanda Shelton, Kevin Heard, Marlin Page, Nikki Pardo and Amy Hunter presenting at the opening presentation for the Out and Equal Midwest Learning Series. BTL Photo: AJ Trager
DETROIT – Five Detroit professionals discussed workplace diversity to an audience of roughly 100 online and in house viewers July 27 in the premiere discussion in the Detroit Out and Equal Midwest Learning Series, co-presented by the Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
Panelists were asked an array of questions about workplace inequality and what it takes to build an inclusive workplace where LGBT and ally professionals can grow and succeed at a time in American history where LGBT lives are a hot topic for businesses and politics.
Marriage equality is just over a year old. For many LGBT men and women that means navigating the ups and downs of married life. However, marriage equality was just one step in the path toward LGBT equality. Some policies and practices still prevent the state from true LGBT inclusion. For instance, here in Michigan, an LGBT couple can be married on Sunday but fired from their jobs on Monday if a business is against their LGBT status.
The five-part learning series brings together hundreds of LGBT professionals, business leaders and allies to share best practices and strategies to enhance workplace inclusion, visibility and diversity.
Panelists Bill Huffaker, Ph.D, global director of talent acquisition for General Motors; Marlin Page, chief diversity and inclusion officer at FCA-US; Amanda Shelton, attorney; Amy Hunter, project coordinator for the ACLU of Michigan's Transgender Advocacy Project and Nikki Pardo, owner of Global Alliance Solutions, LLC, represented Michigan's inclusive and diversity efforts.
Americans and employers are increasing their knowledge about who trans people are, listening to their stories and they're realizing that the trans community holds the same types of jobs, Hunter explained. Trans workers are coders, construction workers, first responders, salespeople or designers, for example.
"The transgender community is an untapped resource. Some of the smartest and thoughtful people that I know on the face of the planet are transgender, and there's kind of a reason for that. So, a company would be really, really wise to go into actively recruiting trans people," Hunter said.
More and more companies are hiring trans men and women in conjunction with the rise of trans visibility; however, trans employees remain the class of individuals with the highest rates of employment discrimination and unemployment under the LGBT umbrella.
"There is a talent pool of folks that major corporations and small businesses can tap that I think would really benefit everybody as well as solve one of the most pressing problems for the trans community," Hunter explained.
Employees exist at the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, trans-ness, sexuality and privilege. LGBT people may be protected under Title IX of the Employment Discrimination Act and Title VII the Civil Rights Act of 1964; however, lawmakers in Michigan have yet to pass any legislation granting the same protections.
Pardo worked for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and described filing LGBT discrimination cases under "sex" instead of sexuality or gender due to this legislative setback. Such hurdles harm not just statistical data but lives of everyday LGBT men and women. Pardo called for a change in Michigan policy to amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
As an ally she believes it is important for allies to be visible in the workplace so that their LGBT coworkers can know who to come to for help or an understanding ear.
Huffaker agreed. He said that allies within the workplace hold extreme power at the corporate level and can play a big part in international and national change.
Witeck Communications, a communications firm that has been monitoring the spending power of the LGBT community, estimates that the LGBT community in 2014 had an estimated $884 billion in spending power.
"Companies need to be careful of their brands. I think it would be advantageous to create a very LGBT friendly environment, especially with the ripple effect and with social media. One tweet, blog or post could devastate a company's brand. I think it comes from both sides. The internal and the external," Pardo said.
The Human Rights Campaign has been publishing its Corporate Equality Index since 2002. The report is a tool used to rate businesses on their treatment of LGBT employees as well as health care opportunities for LGBT employees and their spouses.
Huffaker was critical of the index score. He believes that while the score is a good indicator of initial workplace inclusion the entire company culture needs to be reflective of inclusion at every level.
"At General Motors and I think across the world, corporations, public policy, corporate communications, global human resources, we're all sort of struggling with [answering] what is the role of a corporation in driving social change and is it appropriate or not. The tides are turning very rapidly," Huffaker said.
Michigan, like many states without LGBT-inclusive legislation is experiencing an LGBT brain drain where potential employees are leaving post graduation for more progressive states. Similarly, some may not take a job in the state due to the same factors. Huffaker was not sure if, had he known before taking the job at GM that Michigan wasn't inclusive to LGBT, that he would have moved him and his partner from a life in San Francisco.
"Folks aren't going to come to Michigan if they're not sure if their second parent adoption is going to hold up here, if they're worried that their spouse won't be treated well, worry about benefits or worry about any of the other things that could come along living in a state that has a reputation for not being open and welcoming. It really comes down to dollars and cents," Shelton explained.
When asked if it was difficult to find diverse graduates in the STEM fields, (science, technology, engineering and math) both Huffaker and Page said no. If those seeking to employ graduates are only pooling from top-tier universities it may be more difficult to fit the diversity positions that many companies are tasked with filling.
So how do you find the talent?
"My thing is, I'm the talent, I'm here and I am not alone on an island by myself. It's about how you go to find that talent. It's about your unconscious bias, your stereotypes. A lot of this is about access and exposure. There's a huge racial and gender gap in technology but I believe that it stems from the lack of exposure and understanding of what this whole thing really is," Page explained.
Through her work at the Trans Advocacy Project, Hunter works with companies on cultural competency to get them to a place where the workplace environment is to a place where a trans man or woman would feel comfortable working there but she is concerned about tokenization.
She said that an employer cannot can't expect trans people to populate trans people.
Everyone has biases and opinions that they bring to work. They also have life experiences that cannot be severed from their daily experience. To move beyond marginalization, discrimination and exclusion the workplace has to become a more open and honest environment.
Huffaker says that in order to do that the workplace must get beyond division and pitting the sexes against one another. The change in the world needs to start from within, he explained, "we are all wired to have biases. But we need to do the work ourselves."
Pardo believes the change is going to manifest most strongly from the executive management level down the chain of command.
"Diversity without inclusion means nothing," she stated. "Inclusion needs to be a part of everyday work."
Learn more at http://www.outandequal.org/events/midwestseries/.
