LGBTQIA+ Affinity Group

Welcome to our

Everyone should feel as safe and comfortable at work as they do at home, so we’re always striving to make Kin + Carta the safest and most welcoming workplace possible. Our LGBTQIA+ Affinity Group epitomises our IDEA initiative to make that vision a reality at every level of our organisation. The affinity group exists to provide additional support to LGBTQIA+ employees alongside making substantial changes to Kin + Carta.

a transmasculine walking down the street

Creating a safe space for everyone

Only by creating and championing a safe space for our LGBTQIA+ employees can we cultivate a culture that’s free of judgement and prejudice. It’s part of our everyday life because we value a sense of belonging in an open community that empowers everyone to be themselves. We’ve made a great deal of progress, but we know there’s always more progress to make, which is why our Affinity Groups are here to support LGBTQIA+ kin and make substantial changes to Kin + Carta. Our work is not done until everyone can be their authentic self.

52% of LGBT+ people said they’ve experienced depression in the last year.

43% of LGBT+ workers are not fully “out” at their place of employment.

69 countries have laws that criminalise homosexuality

Becoming allies and building relationships

To make the world work better for everyone, we need to enable everyone to work better together. This means breaking down barriers of misunderstanding in people who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+ and motivating them to be more compassionate, open-armed and open-minded as allies. Our Affinity Groups provide support, resources and advocacy for internal education, as well as external outreach to partners and community nonprofits that support our stronger together mentality. The number of people feeling empowered to publicly identify as LGBTQIA+ might be increasing, but, the way we see it, the world won’t be truly inclusive until everyone feels empowered to be themselves around everyone else.

What's happening at Kin + Carta

We’re taking actions every day to be more inclusive as an organisation, no matter how big or small. Here’s a look at some of the great things our kin are doing both in and out of work to improve our world:

Providing support for our LGBTQIA+ kin: We hold space for LGBTQIA+ employees to connect and learn from each other
Improving hiring and diversity: We’re trying to remove as much bias as possible in our processes to make our vacancies completely inclusive and accessible; we’re also posting our job adverts for all new roles on the official LGBTQIA+ recruitment board, LGBTjobs.co.uk
Making our pronouns known: We display our pronouns in Slack and email signatures to make sure everyone is addressed as they should be
Improving trans inclusion: We are taking concrete steps to improve inclusion for transgender and non-binary people in our offices, for example, ensuring access to facilities for all genders in all offices
Passing the Mic: We’re elevating our LGBTQIA+ Kin voices all-year-round in internal workshops, expert talks and our regular Pass the Mic series
Marching at events: We’re advocates and attendees of fantastic events like Pride in London
Developing new, inclusive policies: We’re in the process of creating a transitioning at work policy - and we won’t stop there
Making everything open source: We’re championing an open-source approach to be part of an inclusive society
Learning from experts: We bring in external speakers and run workshops to learn from experts and those with lived experience
Partnering with Out in Tech: We are one of 40,000 members helping LGBTQIA+ folks pursue careers in tech

Embracing change

Our IDEA initiative is more of an imperative than an incentive. We’re not here to tick boxes; we’re here to change lives.

Everyone has the right to their place in this world and it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to ensure our friends and colleagues can feel comfortable at work.

If we feel safe, empowered and equal together, imagine the change we can inspire together...