Launched in December by final-year economics student Bryan Rohan, the Queer Careers Network aims to connect LGBT college students with LGBT friendly firms and employers. The Westin Hotel hosted the group’s first networking event last night, which was a venture organised in collaboration with the Trinity Law Society (Law Soc) and sponsored by the legal firm Arthur Cox.
The evening was similar to the vast majority of networking events in many ways. However, there was one noticeable difference: all the firms present had been recognised in the past as Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) diversity champions for their LGBT-inclusive employment policies. GLEN is an NGO which hopes to deliver ambitious and positive change for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people in Ireland. Representatives from PwC, EY, Arthur Cox, Eversheds, Ulster Bank, Accenture, Amazon, Google and Trinity itself took to the podium to talk about firstly, their respective internships and graduate programmes and secondly, the tangible efforts they make to make it easier for the LGBT community to feel more comfortable in the workplace.
Attendance at Pride parades, automatic subscription to mailing lists that promote internal networking amongst members of the LGBT community and various educational and training programmes surrounding LGBT issues were among the most popular measures adopted by the firms present to promote diversity within the workplace. Many of the firms spoke of internal committees within the firm tasked with reaching out and supporting employees who identified as members of the LGBT community: Amazon had “Glamazon”, Google had a group called ‘Gayglers and Allies’ and Ulster Bank has a dedicated team titled “The Rainbow Committee”, to name but a few.
The representatives from the Trinity LGBT Staff Network made some noteworthy comments surrounding their goals for the future, particularly given Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) recent campaigns in favour of inclusivity for students. One of the goals of the group is to make gender-neutral bathrooms available in all buildings on campus. In addition, the group wishes to replicate recent moves made by Academic Registry that have made it easier for students to change the gender recorded on their student file, so that staff may as easily change their file to ensure that the correct gender is noted on all documentation.
One of the most talked about presentations came from a solicitor at Arthur Cox who spoke of the enormous support she received from colleagues when she wrote a letter to the Irish Times following some offensive commentary made during the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015. This friendly, supportive environment seemed to be present in all the firms who spoke at the event.
Indeed, the well-attended event served as a message of hope to students who may have recently come out and are worried about how this may affect their careers. All the firms present made it very clear that diversity, inclusivity and equality are not just buzz words used by 21st-century employers and that firms are making active efforts to help employees “bring their whole selves to work”.
The Queer Careers Network will be holding a trans inclusion panel next Thursday at 1pm in collaboration with the University Philosophical Society (the Phil).
