5 reasons why it is important to recognise Disability and LGBTQ+ intersectionality.

As June ends and July begins we should all be putting up our disability pride flags right alongside our LGBTQ+ rainbow flags, and they should be kept up all year. Here is why…

Employers often use the various pride months as a time to showcase their accessibility strategies and what they are doing to ensure access and inclusion. Leaving June’s LGBTQ+ Pride and entering into July’s Disability Pride, here are 5 reasons why it is important to recognise Disability and LGBTQ+ intersectionality:

1. Intersectionality

Too often, we cordon off groups into their separate boxes. So, as we leave LGBTQ+ Pride Month and enter into Disability Pride Month we need to consider the shared and separate experiences of disabled and LGBTQ+ people and, what employers can learn from this.

Disability issues disproportionately affect the LGBTQ+ community. Following the HIV and AIDS crisis, the number of disabled LGBTQ+ people increased and nowadays, more than one-third of LGBTQ+ people report having a disability. 

Alongside this, there are big crossovers in the experiences that disabled and LGBTQ+ employees have. Both are communities of ignored talent with only 8% of managerial roles being filled by disabled people and trans people being 15% more likely than cis-gendered people to earn less than £20,000 per annum. 

Remember that, a person can be disabled, LGBTQ+ and BAME. Issues of accessibility cannot be dealt with separately, as those with more than one protected characteristic will face all the more barriers in life and in employment.  

2. Discrimination Statistics

People who present as disabled or LGBTQ+ face massive discrimination in the workplace.  People with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community are incentivised to hide their true selves to land jobs. Wheelchair users and D/deaf people are classic examples of disabled people who are immediately ghosted by recruiters and interviewers because their disability is seen first. 

Disabled people's true skills and value as an employee are repeatedly overlooked and minimised. As a result, disabled people have to apply for 60% more jobs than non-disabled people to find employment. Clearly, both groups are marginalised right from the get-go when it comes to finding employment.

3. Demonisation

Disabled people tend to be seen as their disability. Someone might be seen as a wheelchair user long before they are recognised as a specialist in their field. Similarly, LGBTQ+ people often remain unemployed and are threatened with job termination if they do not conform to conservative workplace rules. For example, gay men are often asked to dampen qualities that are perceived as feminine and trans individuals are forced to dress as if they were cis-gendered instead of their chosen gender identity. 

LGBTQ+ and disabled people are constantly forced to mask their true selves in the workplace. These practices demonise both communities and reinforce the stigma around them. The reality is that revealing that you are part of one of these communities leaves you open to discrimination.

Disabled and LGBTQ+ people are constantly made to feel invisible or demonised, especially in the workplace. 

Take for example staff holiday parties, often these kinds of events take place in a totally inaccessible area. Whether it's somewhere that can only be accessed by stairs, or it’s a loud environment that would cause sensory overload for an autistic employee, the fact remains that employers do not even bring disabled employees into consideration. 

This isolates disabled people from their colleagues. 

As we move from pride month into disability pride month employers should consider how to expand the accessibility created in pride month, like stripping away gender stereotypes, to the disability community.

4. Walk the Walk

Now that pride month has become a staple of the professional calendar, conversations have moved to how we can not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk. This is a valuable sentiment that we all need to remember as we celebrate disability pride. 

During disability pride month you should be creating strategies that are built to last. Making events accessible during Disability Pride Month is great, but if every event for the other 11 months of the year is inaccessible, then you aren’t truly making our workplaces accessible. 

Only considering disability during July results in the tokenisation of disability. As we often see when clothing brands bring out a bunch of products with rainbows in June but do nothing to support LGBTQ+ rights, when disabled employees are only considered during July then you are reducing their disability to a marketing strategy.

5. Shared History 

The disability community and the LGBTQ+ community have an endless shared history. We cannot look at them individually. The historical intersection can be traced back to the early modern period. 

In fifteenth-century England, gay men were seen as the epitome of sinfulness and disabled people were told by the church that they were being punished by god. 

In the twentieth century, the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act began the ongoing political struggle for equality and civil rights in these communities. Throughout the past 40 years, who can donate blood has been a topic of huge tension and debate for both communities, often they have banded together to seek this basic right.

One shared struggle that employers should take note of is the shared lack of access to healthcare. This is an issue that both communities still battle every day. In the UK, a tiny amount of private medical insurance policies offered to employees include cover for transitioning surgeries or treatment for gender dysphoria. However, that leaves the vast majority of trans employees without support for what is necessary medical treatment. Plus, even if people are lucky enough to make it to the end of the NHS waiting list for one of these, employers are usually very inflexible with time off for these treatments. 

The story is much the same for disabled employees. Often disabled people will require medical procedures and therapy throughout their life, and these medical services are rarely covered under insurance (even if this is a perk advertised by their employer). 

As Disability Pride Month begins, employers need to ensure that their current insurance policies are capable of supporting disabled people in their medical needs and that they are willing to exercise flexibility when met with new needs from employees. Employees also must learn (and teach) that medical insurance is not a benefit, it is a need! 

Whilst you may think advertising a comprehensive insurance policy reflects your inclusivity of disability, it actually reinforces the idea that disabled people are lucky to have found a job in which their insurance will cover their medical costs, when actually medical coverage is a basic requirement that should be available to disabled employees just as it is for non-disabled employees.

In transitioning from LGBTQ+ Pride Month into Disability Pride Month employers should reflect on the longevity of their efforts for accessibility and remember that intersectionality cannot be forgotten. 

Altogether, it will always be essential to remember not only to be an ally to one community but to also be an ally to those whose identity is characterised by intersectionality.