Tug-of-war
“But would it work here in Hong Kong? We don’t have any gay people in the office,” Oliver said.
“How do you know that?” Kevin asked with a smile.
“Well, at least we don’t see them in the office.”
“Do you think you can tell who’s gay and who’s not?”
“Er. Hmm. Don’t really know. But I guess nobody in the office stands out prominently. I mean nobody looks or dresses like gay people.”
“You may be correct there. When we’re talking about LGBT we always imagine they dress differently, look feminine in case of men and masculine in case of women, have limp wrists, speak with a shrill voice, etc. etc. But these are all stereotypes. We shouldn’t judge people by their appearance or manners.”
“Then how do we know how many LGBT people work with us?” Oliver asked. “We’ll probably need numbers some time down the road?”
“That’s a good question, Oliver. Research shows that ten percent of any given general population would be LGBT on an average. But the answer is we don’t exactly know. And we shall not try to find out. We’ll have a no outing policy,” Kevin said.
“What does that mean? No outing policy?”
“Some LGBT people, who’ve been hiding their sexual orientation, may choose to tell others, if they choose to tell others, at some point in life. This is known as coming out. To whom they tell is their business. People wouldn’t normally come out to a person they don’t trust. So if somebody chooses to come out to you, it means they trust that you’ll respect their privacy. It is not our business to go about announcing it to others. By not talking about them in front of others without their permission, we define the no outing policy. In a nutshell, we don’t discuss who is LGBT and who isn’t, even if they shared their secret with us.”
“So, are you saying we’ll never learn who the LGBT people are and yet run this staff support group?” asked Oliver.
“Yes. There’s a chance we may never have LGBT members. But that’s not our aim, right? We want more non-LGBT people to join and send out a strong message of respect.”
“Respect for what?” Oliver wondered where the discussion was headed.
“For years, LGBT people have felt they aren’t treated as equals. That’s true. They know they’re different and they feel unwelcome. People do treat them with disrespect and as outcasts. To people who have and who are living under this constant pressure, it’s a great relief when the focus is taken away from their sexual orientation. They yearn to be treated like everybody else, without any prejudice.”
“Okay, I understand that.” Oliver thought for a few moments. “But why does the firm not let them be, why focus on them?”
“A good question again. I had talked about this earlier.”
“Sorry. I must have missed that bit.”
“No worries. Happy to explain again. It’s in the best interest of any company that all its employees work at their 100% for a long period of time. So in order to keep them with the firm for a long period, and most importantly to attract new talent, the firm must offer something in return.”
“Yeah, you’d mentioned this. But aren’t benefits and pay packages enough to attract people?”
“In this era of competition, apparently, not enough. Companies fight a constant tug-of-war to attract and retain from the same talent pool at all times. So it’s important to assure people that the focus is on merit and not on gender, class, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, race, etc. Companies need to have clear-cut policies against discrimination of any kind. This is the base on which diversity and inclusion programs are run worldwide.”
“I understand now. Thank you,” Oliver said. “But before I head back to my desk, I have one last question.”
“Yes?”
“What should be our approach? How should we propagate the message? What kind of events do we need to put together? Sorry, that’s three questions, not one.” Oliver laughed.
“I’m happy Daniel recommended you, Oliver. You’re a smart guy.” Kevin winked. “To answer your question, it’s not an easy task to pull off. Our approach would be to focus on growing awareness first. Awareness could be through seminars, intranet, communication emails, training programs, etc. We could invite prominent external speakers to come in and talk on these topics. Other kinds of events would aim at employee participation. We should look at engaging as many people as possible in these events. So, we’d need to focus on what people like to do in general. And maybe some team building events.”
“Do we have a budget for this or are we going to ask staff to pool in the money?” asked Oliver.
“Yes. There’s a budget for this. I can’t disclose the figure to you right now. But I can tell you this much that it’s a modest amount. Not too big, not too small. Just enough,” Kevin said.
“Okay. That’s good to hear. As far as I know our staff, not many would pull out their wallets to sponsor something that’s alien to them.”
“That’s alright. We’re prepared for it. Let’s just take one step at a time. It was great talking to you, Oliver. I’ve to rush to another meeting. If you have any questions, please, feel free to approach me.”
“That’s all for now.” Oliver stood up. “See you.”
“Yup.”
Oliver walked back to his desk. There was so much to do. But would he be able to pull it off? He had no LGBT friends. Did that mean nobody trusted him? That felt bad. In fact, it was shameful. He thought of himself as a very friendly person and yet not a single person had come out to him during school, college or work-life. It was time to change that. He had to read up on the topic. He had to meet more people. He had so much to learn. All this would take time. Most importantly, it would keep his mind off Priscilla.
