LGBT+ Guidance for Security Workplaces: Inclusion, Language and Respect from IPSA and the SIA

Creating a workplace that is inclusive for all employees is pivotal for performance. The International Professional Security Association (IPSA) and the Security Industry Authority (SIA) have produced LGBT+ guidance for the security industry, covering how to support colleagues and how to use inclusive language.

PGFM is proud to be an IPSA member, and we are glad to share this guidance. It is organised into three themes, followed by a language guide.

Support, empowerment and tolerance

• Listen to and support LGBT+ employees.
• Promote awareness of LGBT+ issues and mark significant dates.
• Provide LGBT+ specific training as part of equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I).
• Represent the LGBT+ community where possible.
• Review staff policies from an LGBT+ perspective.
• Understand concerns and feedback.
• Uphold a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and harassment.
• Educate staff on LGBT+ issues and developments.
• Share LGBT+ staff statistics where permitted, and understand any gaps.

Inclusivity, belonging and culture

• Create an LGBT+ inclusive workplace.
• Visibly support LGBT+ colleagues across your organisation.
• Take part in relevant LGBT+ events, or host your own.
• Offer equal benefits to all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, including parental leave, adoption policies and time off.
• Hire and promote in an inclusive way, with appropriate development.
• Empower staff to discuss LGBT+ issues and topics.
• Improve understanding of colleagues’ multiple identities, such as LGBT+ people of colour.
• Work to understand the experiences of LGBT+ staff.

Respect, conversation and language

• Use people-first language that centres on the individual rather than a descriptor.
• Use neutral language, which removes assumptions about background or preferences.
• Listen when people share words or phrases that they find harmful.
• Explain the context and impact of non-inclusive language to others.
• Empathise with how words could make others feel.
• Commit to continuously learning about, and using, inclusive language.
• Demonstrate inclusive behaviour and language wherever possible.
• Bring LGBT+ individuals together and support them with understanding and compassion.

LGBT+ language guide

The language we use when interacting with others has the power to validate all identities, but it also has the power to deny them. These are the key terms from the guide.

Identity and expression

• Gender identity: A person’s internal, personal sense of their own gender. It is not the same as sex.
• Gender expression: The way a person presents their gender, through actions, clothing, demeanour and more.
• Assigned gender: The gender a person is assigned at birth.
• Anatomical sex: A combination of genitals, chromosomes, hormones and more. It is not the same as gender identity.
• Cisgender: Someone whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth.
• Non-binary: Someone who does not fit into the gender binary of male or female.
• Gender fluid: An identity for people whose gender does not conform to the binary understanding of gender.
• Intersex: A person who may have biological characteristics of both male and female sex.
• Trans: An umbrella term for people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. “Transgender” and “transsexual” are not umbrella terms, and it is important to ask trans people which term they prefer.
• Transition: The process of aligning gender expression with gender identity for people who are trans.
• Gender reassignment: The process undertaken by some trans people to alter their physical characteristics to match their gender identity.

Orientation and attraction

• Sexual orientation: A person’s emotional, romantic, sexual and relational attraction to another person.
• Lesbian: A woman who is attracted to other women.
• Gay: Attraction to people of the same sex.
• Bisexual (or bi): Attraction to both men and women.
• Pansexual: Attraction to people of any gender.
• Asexual: Low, absent or no sexual attraction to anyone.
• Heterosexual: Attraction to people of the opposite sex.
• Questioning: Exploring one’s sexuality or gender identity.
• Queer: Traditionally a negative term, which some members of the LGBT+ community have reclaimed. It should only be used for someone who self-identifies that way.

Community and practice

• LGBT+: An acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans. The + represents the wider community.
• Ally: Someone who does not identify as LGBT+ but advocates for fairness and inclusion for all.
• Coming out: The process of acknowledging one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Some people are out to everyone, and some are out to only a few.
• Closeted: A person whose sexual orientation or gender identity is not openly shared.
• Pronouns: Words that refer to the people talking, or to someone or something being talked about. Inclusive practice means asking people for their preferred pronouns, just as you would ask their name.
• Intersectionality: An approach largely advanced by women of colour. It argues that classifications such as gender, race and class cannot be examined in isolation, because they interact and intersect in people’s lives, in society and in social systems. The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.

Download the guidance

Download the LGBT+ Guidance