Embracing empathy during Trans Awareness Week 2024

It's Trans Awareness Week 2024 - a week to shine a light on systemic issues that trans and gender nonconforming people face in everyday life. It’s been a challenging time for the community lately so empathy is more important now than ever.?

Anti-trans rhetoric has surged in the UK and US recently, fuelling division and impacting real lives. Harmful media coverage has added to this, leading to 70% more trans based hate crimes recorded by police in 23/24 than 20/21 - and that’s just the crimes that get reported.?

This has also translated into the workplace. According to the TransActual 2021 survey, 63% of respondents reported experiencing transphobia while seeking employment. As always, this gets even more common for trans people of colour and people living with a disability. 1 in 3 UK employers won’t hire a person who is known to be trans.?

Alex Herbert, Senior Engineer at Made Tech has experienced this personally, “you know what it means when they tell you you’re not a ‘cultural fit for the team’. You can read between the lines.”

Reflecting on her experience at Made Tech, Alex explains: “Before my interview in 2021, I read their publicly available handbook and noted their strong commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion principles. This gave me the confidence to openly discuss my trans identity during the interview, which was one of the primary reasons I wanted to work here.”

Today is the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR), where the community remembers those who have been lost in the last year to transphobic hate crimes, trans colleagues at? work may be feeling particularly sombre. Please show them empathy and give them space if they need it.

What can you do?

• Listen to trans colleagues, provide a platform for them to speak up and help amplify trans voices on social media.

• Check out LGBT Foundation or GLAAD’s resources on how to be a better trans ally.

• Look into Stonewall’s guide or CIPD’s guide on how to support trans people in the workplace.

• Educate yourself on trans issues, and challenge disinformation. Challenging disinformation especially can be tough, but it’s vital. YouTube is a great resource. Some of my colleagues have posted some videos recently, saying that these helped them ‘get it’: Philosophy Tube - Identity: A Trans Coming Out Story and Social Constructs (or, 'What is A Woman, Really?')