LGBTIQA+ inclusion in 2026: What employees actually want
About this Episode
In this solo episode, Bree unpacks what LGBTIQA+ inclusion needs to look like in Australian workplaces in 2026, drawing on a year's worth of focus groups and consultations across organisations, including universities, governments and not for profits.
The episode discusses the current global and local context: a climate where public support for LGBTIQA+ people is being tested, and where some organisations are quietly stepping back rather than leaning in.
Bree argues this is exactly the wrong moment to retreat, and lays out what employees are actually asking for right now.
Bree closes with a practical list of actions organisations can take, and makes the case that meaningful action plans don't need to be complicated to matter.
What You'll Learn
Why 2026 is the moment to lean into LGBTIQA+ inclusion work, not pull back from it
What employees are actually asking for from their organisations right now, beyond policy statements
Why visible leadership matters, and why Pride March attendance alone isn't enough
How to approach data collection on LGBTIQA+ identities so employees trust it and actually participate
Why low-cost connection opportunities often matter more than big-ticket events
Why intersectionality has to sit at the centre of this work, not the edges
Resources Mentioned
Keep Learning & Connect With Bree
Want practical strategies for navigating resistance and building real momentum in your DEI work? Access my free webinar on evidence-based DEI strategies here. It’s packed with tools you can start using today.
If this episode sparked ideas or questions and you want to talk more about how I can support your team or organisation, book a free 20-minute call with me. I’d love to hear what you’re working on and explore how we can move the work forward together.
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Episode 25: LGBTIQA+ inclusion in 2026: What employees actually want
Bree (they/them):
So on this episode of DEI Will Not Die, I'm here by myself, and I wanted to talk a bit about LGBTIQA+ inclusion in the workplace in 2026: how things have changed, how the things we need to be doing have changed, and also, in many ways, have stayed the same, but we're not necessarily doing as much of them.
I'm really keen to delve into this topic, particularly in the current global context and also the local context here in Australia. I am currently on the lands of the Wadawurrung people, and I want to pay my respects to their elders past and present, and I call out to any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who are listening in today, and also specifically to queer Aboriginal folk who might be listening, recognising the intersections of being both queer and First Nations in this country, and the unique challenges and barriers that might present in the workplace and in community settings in general.
I once ran a series of focus groups at an organisation where we were developing their next LGBTIQA+ inclusion plan. I was asking participants what things in the workplace made them feel safe, included, or like they belonged. I won't share the specifics of this story because I don't have permission to do so, but there was a participant who, on their very first day in that workplace, experienced a signal of their own identity that they had never had in any other workplace prior to that. In all their previous workplaces, they hadn't been out, for many reasons, but one was that they had never seen themselves represented in the workplace before. This was a signal that was provided to them on their very first day, and within that split second, that moment, they decided this was a workplace where they would be out. They described what a beautiful experience it was, working somewhere they could be themselves for the first time ever.
If you work in the DEI space, the diversity, equity and inclusion space, you come across these stories quite regularly. They're one-off stories, they're anecdotal, but they accumulate, and there are so many of them. The little story I've just shared could be representative of fifty or sixty stories I've heard over my time doing this work. The things we do in workplaces really matter for LGBTIQA+ people, for our sense of safety, our sense of inclusion and belonging, and therefore our ability to be our best at work.
I always like to put myself personally in the stories and the situation. I didn't fully know I was in the closet for all the years I was in the closet in the workplace. Part of me had always known I was bisexual, or pansexual, but I had buried that so deep. It wasn't an active choice to be in the closet. When it comes to my gender identity, I've had multiple iterations of my gender expression over the years, going from very masculine to very feminine, and it was never an active choice to be in the closet, but it was still a subconscious one.
Once I got myself into a workplace that was about diversity, equity and inclusion, and there was not only representation of people of my true gender expression and sexuality around me, but all the positive ways and expressions of being queer were present, talked about, celebrated and affirmed, that was an environment in which I was able to stop burying things down and really reflect on who I was, who I was deep down, and therefore who I needed to be in the workplace and in my life going forward.
That is really one of the reasons I'm so driven in this work, because it is so life-changing to find yourself in a workplace where your identity is affirmed, where you are free to discover who you are, and the flow-on effects of that in terms of the impact on your career can be immeasurable. That's certainly what it's been for me: finally finding work that brought me purpose and joy, and that allows me to have real impact. I know my story is just one of thousands and thousands of stories.
So hopefully that sets the scene, and I know I'm potentially talking to the converted here. We know why it's important, but sometimes it's nice to remind ourselves that it is about all of us and our stories, and how we show up in the workplace.
In the current global context, it does feel less safe to be queer, and I'm coming from an experience of holding multiple levels of privilege. I am white, I am someone who is masculine presenting, which gives me privilege, and I am quite established in my career at this point. So I'm not feeling personally threatened at this point in time. But even for somebody like me, the global context is scary. Every time I'm asked to share my gender identity, whether in organisational settings, health settings, airport settings, wherever it might be, there is now that doubt in your mind as to whether it's the right thing to be doing, or whether you're going to regret disclosing that in the future.
I remind myself that with the privilege I hold, I need to be visible, so it's important that I continue to do that. But not everybody has that privilege, and it's a difficult time to be queer. That is absolutely true.
So in that context, what do workplaces need to be doing now? Well, what they don't need to be doing is withdrawing from their LGBTIQA+ work, because it is needed now more than ever. This is the time to lean in, and not just in this work specifically, but in diversity, equity and inclusion more broadly. You've heard me say this many times: this is the time we need to be leaning in more than we ever have, because we have to hold the ground we've made, and we need to prevent the retraction, the stepping away from the work that we're seeing happening, that has real-life impact on people right now.
It's not only challenging in workplaces. Let's remember that LGBTIQA+ people who are in our organisations, or who interact with our organisations, are experiencing what's happening in the world too. Let's be honest, Facebook is a shit show if you're queer right now. There's no reason to be on there, because it isn't safe or friendly. Sporting environments are also getting to a point where it feels more like walking on eggshells. Yes, there has been a lot of progress, and we're seeing some good things happening, particularly in this country, but there's also definitely an increase in minority voices that can find themselves with a lot of power within institutions, sporting clubs and organisations. People make noise, and then those in positions of power get scared, or listen too much to a vocal minority, and we see decisions being made that aren't inclusive and aren't in the best interests of the sport or the goal of participation.
So I think we're all on the same page: we really need to be leaning into the work around LGBTIQA+ inclusion. But how do we do that in a meaningful way in the current environment, without creating a whole lot of backlash? I think it's on the shoulders of organisations, and people seeking to create inclusion and make loud statements about that inclusion, to also manage the risk that comes with it, for our own employees and for people who interact with our business. How are we managing the backlash that would inevitably come, and protecting people from it, or stamping it out as quickly and strongly as we possibly can?
No, everybody does not get an opinion on this topic. I'm afraid that's just the truth of it. I spoke to an organisation that posted something about Pride or inclusion on Facebook and left the comments open and unmoderated. When I asked them to delete the comments, they said their policy was that all opinions would be heard. No. This is not in the spirit of inclusion. This is just rage-baiting. If you're not prepared to shut down negative, discriminatory, harassing or trolling responses to your signs of pride, then you're not actually committed to pride. Sure, let's have debates about real topics, but let's not debate the existence of people, their identities, or their human rights, because that should be a given.
So let me talk about what I'm hearing employees want. I run a lot of consultations and focus groups across different organisations to inform their strategies and action plans in this space, and what I've been hearing this year is, first and foremost, that employees want strong, irreversible messages of support from their organisation. They want their organisation to take a hard line: we are an inclusive space, LGBTIQA+ people are welcomed here and will be protected from hate, discrimination, bullying and harassment. It's not enough to have it in your policies. Employees want leaders to say it, and to say it regularly: to send an email, if people actually read emails, to make commentary in meetings, to call out negativity, to reaffirm and re-establish that support.
I do a lot of work in universities, and students and staff are asking for this very clearly: they want to know that if politics shift in this country, their organisation is still going to be behind them, that they're still safe, that this is still the place for them to study, to work, to be, to exist. That's something organisations can absolutely be doing. It's easy, it's free, and it's important. People want to hear those strong messages: that we will not backtrack on our policies, that this is where we stand, and we're here for it.
Now, we've seen many companies in the US that we thought were really committed to this work absolutely backtrack, for various reasons, some involving funding and government policy changes, and that's scary. It's scary to know you could be at the whim of voters at the next election in this country too, particularly with the rise of One Nation, even if it is a rise, who knows. For those of you who aren't from the Australian context, elections are looming, and we're certainly seeing similar politics being tried here, as we've seen in the UK and the US. We'll just have to wait and see.
In that context, employees also want to see visible leadership, and that means queer folk in leadership positions, which is always asked for. When you ask LGBTIQA+ employees what would enable them to aspire to leadership roles, they almost always say: seeing people like me in leadership roles. It's important, and this is a hard one, because it does place a burden on LGBTIQA+ leaders to be out, loud and proud. I think that's okay. Once you've made it to a leadership role, and I get that this is sometimes very context-specific depending on the organisation, I think you can play such an important role by being out and proud as a queer person in that organisation.
Employees want to know those people exist, and it means so much to people. But it's not just that. Not all organisations will have an LGBTIQA+ person in a leadership role, but having those who are in leadership roles make public signs of support for the community matters too, whether that's wearing a rainbow lanyard or a pride pin, introducing themselves with their pronouns, advocating for change, or showing up at Pride events.
That's part of the conversation, but it's not enough on its own. I hear just as often from employees that all their leaders do is go to the Pride march. That's a showy, performative thing that holds real value in terms of community visibility and public discourse, and it's a genuinely important thing for leaders to do, but it can't be the only thing you do. It can't be just this one thing every year: I showed up at the Pride march, and that's how I demonstrate allyship. It's got to be much more holistic than that, and it's got to hold true throughout the year.
LGBTIQA+ employees want to be counted. They really do. They want to be seen in the data, and they want their experiences highlighted and shared, but they want agency in how that happens. Nothing can be compulsory or mandatory. And they want to know the data is safe: if they disclose that they're LGBTIQA+, how is that data controlled? Who has access to it? Organisations often say nobody will disclose whether they're queer on a survey, too many people select "prefer not to say." Rather than just accepting that, look at what you can do to demonstrate that the data collection is secure and is going to be used for something purposeful.
If you're just collecting the data, employees will ask why. Why does my workplace need to know if I'm gay? I hear this all the time. So when you're collecting the data, you actually need to run a bit of a campaign around it. You need information included alongside the data collection saying: this is what we're using it for, this is why we want to know, this is what it will inform.
We do want to be counted. Just look at the census. The census in Australia has recently included LGBTIQA+ people for the first time, and what a moment that is. I almost teared up a little as I made my selections on the census survey. It means so much to be seen. But it also brings risk, and that's a risk that sits with the organisation to carry.
People want connection opportunities. They really want connection opportunities in a world that can feel scary and a lot, and often very online. The number of times I've heard focus group participants say they want coffee catch-ups with other LGBTIQA+ employees always blows my mind, because it's such a consistent theme. It's not necessarily the big, fancy morning teas and events with important speakers. That's important from a visibility and educational perspective, but in terms of what LGBTIQA+ people actually want to participate in themselves, it's being able to sit around a table at a cafe with other queer folk, discussing their experiences in the workplace, supporting each other, pointing each other towards available supports, and towards ways they can create change around a barrier they're experiencing or facing. This is what people are really asking for, and it costs you nothing except maybe a small coffee tab, if you want to chip in, though most of the time employees are happy to cover that themselves. They just really want the space to connect, and increasingly, they want that connection to be localised.
Again, such a cheap intervention, but it can be so impactful.
The final thing I'll say about what employees have been asking for is that this work always needs to happen through an intersectional lens. Somebody said in a meeting this morning that the Venn diagram between neurodivergence and LGBTIQA+ identity is basically a circle, and I think they're right. But it's not just that. I've been working on a project where people from different cultural and religious backgrounds have expressed that they don't feel included or accepted in the Pride events or queer events happening in their organisation. They don't feel safe accessing reporting channels, because they don't believe there will be consideration for the different barriers and cultural complexities they're facing in those processes. They don't want to access EAP supports, for fear that there won't be a trauma-informed person who also understands the cultural context of being LGBTIQA+ alongside other aspects of their identity that are also presenting barriers for them in the workplace. That's got to be central to all of the work we do in this space.
So, to wrap up: what are some of the best things organisations can do? I'll start with the quick and cheap things.
Coffee catch-ups. Absolutely, put them back on the table, back on the list of things to do. It can seem like a small, silly action, why would that have a place on an action plan, but it has a place. Give people opportunities to connect.
With your employee resource groups, if you have them, come along, and there are typically three reasons people do, based on some of the research that's been done. They come because they want to be involved in advocacy and creating a more inclusive workplace. They come because they want social connection with people who have a similar lived experience. And they come for professional development. Too often, employee resource groups or pride networks are framed around the advocacy piece, which is great, but not everybody wants to participate in that. Many people just want the connection opportunity, and there shouldn't be a burden attached to that. If you're reaching out to connect with LGBTIQA+ people in your organisation, there should be avenues to do that which are there purely for social connection.
Collate resources and start engagement campaigns that don't hinge on days of significance. There's so much material available now that you can draw on. I'll give a plug here to Melbourne University's Gender Affirmation resource, a series of videos, recently released and publicly available. It's university-specific, but there's also some really good general learning in there, and it gives a sense of what other organisations could do. There are plenty of resources out there: get them together and start drip-feeding them through to your employees.
I think we've fallen into a mindset that educating people on something like LGBTIQA+ inclusion means everybody has to attend a two-hour workshop. I love workshops, I deliver workshops, I'm all for them, but they're only one piece of the picture. Honestly, so much more learning can happen through regular drip-feeding of small bites of information, and we're seeing that hold true, alongside the bigger workshops. People do need that space to sit with a topic, get familiar and comfortable with it, test out language, and understand what it takes to create structural change. But if we leave it to those one-off workshops alone, we don't get to see the change. We need to combine that with our action plans, obviously, but also with more consistent engagement across the year, giving people bite-sized information they can learn from.
Moving up to things that might cost a bit more, if you don't have internal capacity: getting a review of your policies, strategies, website and marketing material through an LGBTIQA+ lens, preferably with somebody who can also apply a broader intersectional lens, so you don't have to do this work twice, or three, four, five times. It's such an easy thing to do, and there are simple things you'll find that can have a big impact. If you're reading a policy and it still says "he" or "she," it's an old policy, it's been sitting there a while, and nobody with that lens has noticed it, but I promise you, your employees notice it. So getting that review, not just in terms of language, but in terms of structural barriers embedded within those policies and strategies that could be completely missed otherwise. A holistic review of your policies and strategies is such an important place to start in developing an action plan, but it can also be a great activity on its own.
Training and workshops, inclusive leadership training: this is a bit of a plug, because I run inclusive leadership workshops, but I think they're incredibly important, giving leaders space and time to think about how they're going to show up as an inclusive leader, what structural and systemic barriers and biases look like, and what it takes to change them. Our leaders need those skills, and we're leaving it out. If you've got leadership programs and they don't have dedicated time around this, please reach out, or find someone who can deliver content that specifically gives people space to explore how they lead inclusively.
And consultation. Nothing beats it. Nothing beats true consultation with employees who have lived experience of being LGBTIQA+, surfacing the barriers they're currently facing within your organisation, and then doing something about it. It's not just about surfacing the barriers, it's also about building trust, building engagement, and allowing people to feel seen and heard. That's part of the work too. It solves a lot of issues we have and can inform the development of an action plan. You don't need some big, fancy plan around LGBTIQA+ inclusion. It might just be one page with a few actions that came out of some focus groups. You can start there. It doesn't have to be complicated to be meaningful and impactful. So I'd suggest getting some kind of plan together, even if it's just five things you're going to do this year. Easy wins will come out of those focus groups, along with the harder things, and then spend some time prioritising the work, so you're not just rapidly responding to things as they pop up.
Okay, so that was a lot. That was a bit of a download from me on so many things I've been working on this year, and it's been good to lay it out. I'd really appreciate any feedback about things I've missed, or things you think could be done differently, and if you have questions, always reach out. Occasionally I'll do these solo episodes, and I'm really happy to respond to what you'd like to hear from me about, or the things you might be grappling with in your practice and your work.
Thank you for listening in, and I'll catch you all on the next episode of DEI Will Not Die.