With Pride Month now more than a month in the past, rainbow logos and solidarity statements have been put in storage for another year, but many companies are realizing that recognizing and addressing the need for LGBTQ employees—including within a travel program—is a year-round process.
"You're trying to create sensitivity and understanding across all of your stakeholders, and it can't be done in one memo, one communication and one month, like Pride," GeoSure co-founder and CEO Michael Becker said in a recent BTN webinar. "It has to be done continuously, and we're beginning to see seismic shifts throughout organizations for diversity, inclusion and equality."
Safety and security remains the driver of many of these efforts, as LGBTQ persecution remains the law in many countries today. Human rights legal advocacy group Human Dignity Trust reports 73 jurisdictions around the world have laws criminalizing same-sex activity. Twelve of those jurisdictions have the death penalty as a potential sentence for such activity, and six of those actively implement that penalty.
Addressing LGBTQ traveler needs goes beyond those extremes, however. Within the United States, several states have introduced "bathroom laws" that target transgender individuals' right to use public facilities, and it was only this summer that the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that employees could not be fired on the basis of sexual orientation.
But the LGBTQ business travel experience goes beyond legal issues, in ways that might be invisible to buyers. Maiden Voyage CEO and cofounder Carolyn Pearson, who conducts training to help travel programs support LGBTQ travelers and other groups, said she spoke with one traveler who, during breakfast at a hotel with his husband, heard a staff member mutter under his breath that his parents should be ashamed of him. Another traveler, a transgender woman, was misgendered as "sir" by a front desk employee at an upscale New York hotel despite the employee knowing her gender, she said.
"It's some highly offensive behavior, but you ask travelers, and very rarely do they complain," Pearson said. "They might just vote with their feet and choose to spend their money elsewhere."
Of course, travel programs have a line to tread between safety and privacy. While LGBTQ travelers should be informed of situations where they face dangers not experienced by non-LGBTQ travelers, companies likely would not want to deny them internal opportunities that might require such travel. Additionally, companies shouldn't put travelers in a position of potentially having to out themselves at work.
Reaching out to LGBTQ travelers for their input should be a first step, said Amir Naveh, the security program manager for Booking.com, who recently left a similar position at Facebook.
"A lot of companies put branding together but don't couple it with action, which can look artificial," he said. "You don't want to make decisions without asking people what they want, so make partnerships with internal communities in research groups."
Making sure LGBTQ travelers are involved in program development not only ensures their needs are understood but also provides an opportunity to give a personal touch by using the stories and voices of those willing to participate in any initiatives, Naveh said.
A growing number of data sources can help buyers address LGTBQ traveler needs. GeoSure, for example, about two years ago developed LGBTQ safety ratings for more than 30,000 neighborhoods globally, which measure the likelihood that LGBTQ travelers will face discrimination in that area. Some corporate travel programs are providing those ratings to travelers across the travel ecosystem through dashboards or such apps as TripIt, which can display a neighborhood rating within an itinerary. More recently, Travel and Transport added data relating to local laws and other dangers as an overlay option for the safety and security map in its Swift Data reporting product.
Getting that information available to travelers is a way of "democratizing safety, understanding that certain organizations might have different demographics in terms of stakeholders," Becker said. "These tools are for everyone in the organization."
That information also has value to non-LGTBQ employees, not only as a point of awareness but also in ways they might need to consider their own behaviors while traveling. For example, an unaware traveler could unwittingly out colleagues by making innocuous conversation about their families in situations where LGBTQ employees might not feel safe in coming out.
Travel management companies also are taking bigger roles in identifying risks, American Express Global Business Travel chief information technology officer David Thomson said. Those efforts include providing the data as well as "training traveler counselors to listen to the needs of travelers and the corporation," he said. "They might listen to comments from an employee unwilling to travel to a location because of new restrictions and can facilitate that conversation with the employee and the corporation."
Suppliers more frequently are volunteering information regarding the LGTBQ community in requests for proposals as well, such as their scores in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, Thomson said.
Even with more resources, however, an environment in which LGBTQ travelers feel like they are a part of the conversation and free to communicate is the essential first step. Managers should also expect to make a few mistakes.
"Don't expect it to be perfect," Naveh said. "[Employees] will want to see that you're making progress and are including people in it, but if communities know you are looking out for them, they will share information. Communities will reach out with ideas to keep you ahead of the curve."
Travel buyers can get friendly with their company's pride and diversity networks and attend events, for example, Pearson said.
"If you want to be an ally, every day is a school day," Pearson said. "People don't want to cause offense and say the wrong thing, but the worst thing they can do is absolutely nothing."