Five ways of becoming a better transgender ally

Grow your team

When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.

Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.

Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?

Use your voice and power to support the trans community

Note on terminology:

The term Trans will be used throughout this blog and encompasses all transgender, non-binary and genderqueer, fluid and non-conforming people.

The term cisgender will be used throughout to refer to people who are not transgender i.e. their gender identity aligns with their birth sex.

Trans and non-binary people comprise around 0.5-1% of the population, meaning 99% are cisgendered. Of course, there are intersectional identities, meaning not all 99% have power and privilege in all areas of their identity, but those that do have both cisgender privilege as well as other privileges are in a position to use their voice to support the Trans community.

So, if you are cisgender ask yourself – what can I do? Or even better read below as a great starting point!

How to support the trans community

1. Research

Research doesn’t have to mean engaging with long texts about the science and history of gender. It can be as simple as…

Following different accounts on Instagram and TikTok
Watching a documentary on Netflix or iPlayer
Finding books or articles written by trans people

Recommendations can be found in the ‘More resources’ section.

The past 12 months have seen an influx of media, especially newspapers covering all things trans but not usually in a practical or inclusive way. And there is a trend that primarily cisgender people write and document these stories. So, when researching, in whichever way is most exciting and engaging for you, try and seek out sources with trans people at the heart of the dialogue, to make the often fear-mongering story, more human.

In 2019 a professor at Lancaster University, found the British press wrote more than 6,000 articles about trans people between 2018-19, many of them written “in order to be critical of trans people” and painted “trans people as unreasonable and aggressive”.

13,015 articles published in the UK (excluding LGBTQ+ media) on trans topics from 2015-2022. 80% of these were negative.

2. Challenge transphobic rhetoric

Challenge the jokes and remarks with transphobic tones
Hold those uncomfortable conversations with friends, family, and colleagues
And accept feedback if you say something wrong/cross the line

It may feel uncomfortable challenging transphobic rhetoric, but by doing so you’ll hopefully be removing that uncomfortable feeling for someone else! As mentioned, 99% of people aren’t trans and therefore can’t fully relate to that experience, which makes it incredibly hard for the 1% to argue and justify their identity when there’s negativity. If 50% of cisgender people challenged jokes and banter, we’d get trans inclusion much quicker!

“As an ally, if you talk about pronouns and normalise this discussion, it makes trans people feel less alone and isolated.”

Download our Trans Inclusion Guidance for free with Inclusive Employers membership

Trans person holding up the Trans Pride flag and smiling

3. Pronouns

This a quick recap on the importance of pronouns, because we have already written a detailed blog that you can find in our blog about ‘Why we use pronouns’.

But as an ally, if you talk about pronouns and normalise this discussion, it makes trans people feel less alone and isolated. It also shows people that you won’t assume pronouns depending on their voice, presentation with hair/clothes etc.

So, what can you do…

Placing pronouns on your work signature/teams name/zoom name
Introduce yourself in meetings with name, job title and pronouns
Use name tags at an upcoming event and create a pronouns section
Use neutral pronouns until you know someone’s, for example ‘What do they do?’
If someone corrects you, say thank you instead of focusing on ‘sorry’
If you realise you’ve got it wrong, quickly correct yourself rather than repeatedly saying sorry

A hand holding a "Hello, My Pronouns Are:" badge

4. Donating

Organisational

Does your workplace have a charitable fund or work in partnership with non-profit organisations? Could you suggest or implement this space to support a local or national trans charity or organisation? You can ask your LGBTQ+ Network for suggestions on who to support.

Individually

If you can financially support charities, consider supporting trans mental health, young people and campaign groups. You may also find individuals fundraising to help them access gender-affirming health care. This is because many trans people undergo private healthcare – a lack of resourcing through the NHS results in 7-10 year waiting times. Procedures people might seek can vary from £8,000 to £30,000+, hence often needing to ask for donations.

5. Allyship at Work

Do you offer private medical care?

Enquire to see if trans gender-affirming health care can be added to your existing policy. Find out how Lloyds introduced this in 2016.

Do you offer an Employee Assistance Programme?

Enquire to see if any of the providers are LGBTQ+ themselves or have specialised knowledge or history working with this community to offer more catered support.

Toilets/Changing Facilities

If you’re moving premises or building a new office, can you promote the importance of a site with single toilet cubicles/single shower and/or changing facilities.

If you’re unable to change a building for toilets but already have some single use toilets – the best sign to use is simple ‘WC’ or an image of a toilet that is usually more globally recognised. WC is more commonly known in the UK.

Data

When collecting internal/recruitment data do you ask inclusive gender identity questions? Even if you do and you don’t have any trans colleagues or it’s a very small amount and you can’t disclose the number, it’s still important to include the option on submission forms and data results. This makes people feel seen and acknowledged.

If you’re a member of Inclusive Employers you can get more data information from our Diversity monitoring form guidance.

More resources for learning more about the Trans Community

If you’re a member, you can find further Trans Education and Advice in the members’ area, which Inclusive Employers members can access for free.

Social Media

@mermaids_gender
@pinkmantaray
@pinknews (LGBTQ+ content)
@alokvmenon
@hannahw253 and @jake_graf5 (Trans parents)

Articles

Trans Inclusion in Sport: Verity’s Story – Mermaids (mermaidsuk.org.uk)

Books

If you want to purchase these, I’d recommend seeking a local LGBTQ+ book shop:

The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye
The Gender Games by Juno Dawson
None of the Above – Travis Alabanza
Kids book: My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart

Podcasts

Dear Schuyler – available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and others
BBC Sounds – NB: My non-binary life – Downloads
One From the Vaults by Morgan M Page: a trans history podcast – available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and others
Talking Inclusion With… Inclusive Employers Podcast

Videos

Use our bitesize toolkit to host conversations about trans allyship

Grow your team

When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.

Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.

Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?

Learn about membership today

Book onto our upcoming webinars

Group of workers of a mixed age range working happily together

April 30 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Five ways to becoming a better transgender ally

Grow your team

Use your voice and power to support the trans community

Note on terminology:

How to support the trans community

1. Research

2. Challenge transphobic rhetoric

“As an ally, if you talk about pronouns and normalise this discussion, it makes trans people feel less alone and isolated.”

3. Pronouns

4. Donating

Organisational

Individually

5. Allyship at Work

Do you offer private medical care?

Do you offer an Employee Assistance Programme?

Toilets/Changing Facilities

Data

More resources for learning more about the Trans Community

Social Media

Articles

Books

Podcasts

Videos

Grow your team

Book onto our upcoming webinars