To mark Trans Awareness Week, Lottoland’s Learning & Development Partner Sophie Wood outlines the challenges that trans employees face at work and how companies can be more trans-inclusive.
When I came out as a Trans Woman in 2011, I was working for West Mercia Police. At that time the Police Service UK had an organisation (self-organised and perpetuated) called the National Trans Police Association (NTPA). While I was there, I supported several Police Service Areas with writing their Trans Inclusive Policies. I also delivered transgender awareness training to regional force areas and the Police Federation. At these events, I would always put my story at the heart of these educational training programmes.
The feedback I used to receive back then was amazingly positive as people quickly realised, I was just a human being like them, but had many other challenges in life to face that they would never have to consider. The most commonly used phrase in this feedback was “You’re very brave”. Whilst appreciating the positivity, this phrase always caused a bit of dissonance in me. I never felt very brave at all. For me, I knew that I was facing and would always face barriers to being accepted in society due to the high levels of ignorance in UK society about trans people. I fully recognised the minority of my minority; which means that not many people knowingly meet or interact with someone like me.
DISCRIMINATION & IGNORANCE
As with many minoritised groups, we face discrimination expressed with hatred, through verbal violence, physical violence, exclusion, humiliation, etc in varying degrees. The hatred comes from fearing what one does not know or understand; namely ignorance. For a large part of every human population, ignorance is happily wilful. Thinking, giving consideration to, and empathising with someone who is, or appears ‘different’ takes discretionary effort; and more often than not people are just not prepared to make that effort.
Now when I was sharing my story with these police officers and staff, just the realisation that I was an ordinary person, trying to navigate their way through life was sufficient to dispel that ignorance. I remember I started every speaking session by getting the audience to read through all these different definitions and explanations of different identities and sexual orientations.
I would then ask the question, “So What Am I?” This would often cause a level of anxiety as people were generally cautious not to cause offence. After an uncomfortable silence, I would answer, “I am a human being and that’s all you are too”. I found this to be such a powerful statement that directly confronted the balance between me and them. It also innately challenges the concept of ‘tolerating’. If you tolerate me, you are saying ‘I have power over you, and I will use it for good, as I am graciously giving you permission to exist alongside me.’ I really don’t like the thought of being tolerated; and in truth, neither do you.
TRANS INCLUSION POLICIES
In 2015, I left the UK and thought I had left the world of diversity and inclusion behind me, and started my new life in Gibraltar. Then in 2019, during the first Covid-19 lock down, I had the opportunity to be the Global Inclusion Manager at Entain. During my time at Entain, I wrote their first Trans Inclusion Policy. This was challenging even for someone like me who is trans. I was very aware that I am an expert in my life experience which, whilst resonating with a proportion of trans people, it in no way represents the entire trans population. So I got help from the experts at Gendered Intelligence and they both helped and educated me at the same time.
My advice to anyone that want to be trans inclusive with policy support is to talk to the experts; you will not regret it. Whilst writing the policy, I was keenly aware that it would signal to people who are trans that Entain is an inclusive and welcoming company; and hopefully would encourage them to apply to join us. As an Inclusion Manager I was very proud because we had also added Trans Health Care benefits to our health insurance provider policy.
I was also aware that as a trans person in the workplace, that this policy and benefits were wonderful in making me feel valued. That said, I knew that from my time at West Mercia Police, I had a positive work experience at a time when they did not have any trans inclusion policy or benefits in place. I reflected that my positive work experience was down to the behaviours of those people around me. That meant people showing empathy, actively including me in conversations, supporting and celebrating my work successes, etc.
CREATING AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE
So now that I am in my new role co-leading Diversity and Inclusion at Lottoland, I know I will look at Policy in 2022. I have been proud about the speed at which we quickly added trans related health care benefits to our policy benefits along with menopause related health care at the same time. One of the wonderful things about Lottoland, is you are able to make good ideas a reality very quickly!
However, I have taken my learning from my lived working experience, and have decided the priority is to get deep into our culture and behaviours. This is not trans-centric, but a wider piece of work that benefits all people from minoritised groups. This is key to creating a genuinely inclusive culture. For those supporting D&I, I suggest that you consult with staff from the groups you are creating policies for,to get their views and values. This is the most important data you will need. Then build and grow your value set in consultation with them and plan your engagement piece which puts peoples’ stories at the centre.
Think. Celebrate, Educate, Elevate. This is the work that will begin to change hearts and minds, behaviours and attitudes. The connection I had with my audience when speaking with the Police Service, that human connection, is what we want to achieve between all of our people at Lottoland.
GLOBAL TRANS AWARENESS
So far I have given you a time line which started for me in 2011. In those 10 years new generations have been arriving into our work spaces, and they can often be characterised by being value driven. The rise of social media and connectivity means that these generations are more educated around gender identity in away that I could not have dreamed of when I came out.
In a previous interview, I predicted that in the coming years non-binary trans identities will be more commonplace than binary identities. So it is important for companies to ensure that the needs of these identities are welcomed and included in your future work spaces. At the same time as this wonderful rise in trans awareness globally, there has also been a kick back of anti-trans movements which have a very powerful voice in mainstream media and political parties. This is very concerning. The atmosphere in the UK for example, if you are trans, is horribly oppressive.
There are frequent articles and broadcasts in the UK media spreading misinformation with an intent to create fear in society around trans people. These groups have created a ‘spurious debate’ around trans women being a threat to women only spaces. They have targeted health care for trans young people, again through purposeful ignorance and misinformation. Trans people are always spoken about in these events, but you will seldom, if ever, hear trans voice being given a platform.
SUPPORTING TRANS INCLUSION
The irony of people with ‘celebrity’ appearing on the BBC, or in daily newspapers, promoting unchecked and unchallenged hate pieces is quite extraordinary. This constant barrage of dangerous nonsense filling newspaper copy and tv shows is bad enough. The worrying thing is that these groups now have significant lobbying influence with the UK Government. There is a serious threat to trans protections under the current Equality Act in the UK. Also there is a danger that the current government will try and conflate conversion therapy with supporting trans children in 2022. This would put the legal status of trans youth supporting charities at risk. They are already targeting Stonewall and creating unjustified question marks around their workplace Index. This is all because of Stonewall’s commitment to supporting trans people.
I would ask all readers of this article to research and educate themselves on trans issues and their experience through the books of Christine Burns (Trans Britain) and Shon Faye (The Transgender Issue) both of which cut through all of the messiness and falsehoods, which is now being labelled as ‘Culture Wars’. In summary, now is the time for companies to stand tall in defending their support for Trans people and LGBTQ+ people in general. Let’s not let the bullies win!
MORE ABOUT SOPHIE WOOD
Sophie Wood has worked in the online Entertainment/Gaming Industry since 2015. She has recently joined Lottoland as Learning & Development Partner and is co-leading D&I with Christina Giuffre (Senior Product Manager Marketing). Her inclusion work began when she came out as trans in 2011 whilst she was working for the UK Police Service as an Information, Intelligence & Investigation Trainer.
She has been Vice-Chair of the National Trans Police Association (NTPA) and led engagement with the UK Police service. This included training delivery to several regional Force areas, NHS Trusts, the Police Federation and the Police Superintendent’s Association. She submitted evidence to the Leveson Enquiry via Trans Media Watch and wrote Transgender Information Handling Guidelines for the Police National Computer (UK Wide) and reviewed trans related legislation to guide the processing of trans people in police custody.
Last year, Sophie Wood shared her trans journey while she worked at Entain (formerly known as GVC Holdings) with Fair Play Talks. Click here to read more.
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