March 2013 - May 2013
Check out the
Out & Equal blog!
Don't forget...
2013 Annual Summit Workshops RFP due by April 19!
Join us for these great upcoming learning opportunities:
Town Calls
(Calls start at 12pm Pacific for one hour)
Classroom Trainings/Events
Apr 2, 9 - at 1:00pm Pacific for 75 minutes - Building Employee/Business Resource Groups (ERG/BRG) Value
Apr 3, 10, 17, 24 - at 1:00pm for 75 minutes - Dialogues on Gender Identity
Want to sponsor the 2013 Out & Equal University online courses? Contact us for details!
March 19 & April 16 at 12:00pm Pacific for 75 minutes - Virtual Summit/Hurricane Series - You can still register to hear the best rated and cancelled workshops from the 2012 Summit presented as live webinars (archived webinars will be available after the series)
Want to sponsor the Hurricane series? Contact us for details!
Featured Out & Equal University Archive Course
How do you encourage allies in your company and get them to think about LGBT workplace equality? You can purchase licenses for archived Out & Equal courses or provide training through your Learning Management System (LMS). A cost effective way to expand the LGBT workplace equality conversation in your workplace. Contact Pat for more details! Discounts for 5+ licenses.
Current Research [Out & Equal webinars and classroom courses are usually submitted to the Society for Human Resources Management's Human Resource Certification Institute. Check to see if you can receive continuing education credits for your participation.]
Trainers' Corner Monday, March 18, 2:00pm Pacific for 60 mins Monthly Trainers' Forum Webinar Moderated by Pat Baillie
Upcoming dates for Trainers Forums:
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 10:00am Pacific Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 10:00am Pacific Become an Out & Equal Certified Trainer and join the Trainer's Network
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Monthly Insights
Thoughts from Pat Baillie, Director of Training & Professional Development
2013 is beginning to shape up as a banner year for LGBT equality. On March 26, the Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. On March 27, the high court hears a challenge to the federal government's denial of benefits to legally married gay and lesbian couples under a law known as the Defense of Marriage Act. A ruling is also due by June on the constitutionality of a federal law that withholds joint tax filing, Social Security survivor payments and numerous other federal benefits from married same-sex couples. Each hearing will last just one hour but each has the potential to bring equality, including benefits for our families. The last hearings by the Circuit Court were banned from being broadcast in 2010 but we know that we will soon be learning about the next steps. Meanwhile around the world, there was hope that the Catholic Church would begin to model the changes we have seen in society. Initial reports indicate that Pope Francis does not support LGBT equality. This is not just of interest to me because I grew up Catholic, but also looking at it from my LGBT perspective; I see countries where we are advancing our rights like France and Mexico which are strongly influenced by the church and wondering how they reconcile the secular with the religious aspects of their lives. We can probably expect to keep hearing the rhetoric that all the church's problems are due to gay priests. In this workplace for priests and other members of the church who identify as LGBT, it looks like they will need to remain in the closet to keep their jobs and continue to deal with issues of discrimination, myths and stereotypes. Those same myths that drove Uganda to create the death penalty for anyone who is LGBT and for the rise of "corrective rape" in countries like South Africa. It would be great to imagine that our work for equality has an end date, even as early as June here in the United States, but once we get all the laws, policies, and benefits in place there is much more to do. Climate and attitude are at the core of real change whether through Self ID or developing allies. And once we figure it out here, we have to be sure to encourage and support this work around the world. Sincerely,
Pat Baillie
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Trainers' Corner
News for Out & Equal Certified Trainers
Webinars, LMS modules, and training on cell phones, oh my! Think about when you first got into training and what the experience was like. For most of us, that experience started with grade school and high school with traditional stand-up classroom format. I may be dating myself, but my first student teaching lesson plans were typed and copies made by mimeographs. (Google that if it is not a familiar term!) I know the advent of computers and PowerPoint made a huge difference in the way we prepared for courses and extended our ability to send great training around the world. It was a big adjustment to move to the webinar format. How would I be able to read the audience, make sure they were getting the information, and be engaging while I was dealing with all the electronic aspects of a webinar? Now, after 4 years of learning and experience, I can safely add live webinars to my training repertoire. Asynchronous training on Learning Management Systems has been around for a long time as many of us have taken annual trainings at our desk, cubicle or work station for years. Today there is an increasing merger of knowledge sharing being added to these sites and more and more we hear about the "cloud" for our training materials. What's next? Training through your cell phone is already a reality and it means those old PowerPoint slides just aren't going to relevant anymore. I know I have moved into a new way of learning with myself with being able to Google information and watching YouTube videos to acquire new skills. The question for us as trainers is how to keep ahead of the learning curve when all the information we can present can probably be found online. The experience of training, through exercises, skill building, practical experiences and stories are just a few of the tools that come to mind. If you have techniques to share or thoughts about where training is heading, be sure to share your insights.
To learn more and to share your questions/insights, please join us for our next monthly
Trainers' Forum Webinar on Monday, March 18
for more information.
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 Current Research
Study of the Month: Lack of Fit model for hiring The "Study of the Month" column features LGBTA-related research studies conducted by members of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP). SIOP is the premier membership organization for those practicing and teaching Industrial-Organizational Psychology, the scientific study of the workplace. For more information about SIOP, please visit www.siop.org. The repeal of the U.S. military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy provides ample opportunities for research. Rarely does such a large organization make such a large policy change in its personnel decisions. Reports indicate that there has not been a major disruption to mission readiness or cohesion in the wake of the repeal. However, there are concerns that gay and lesbian service members may have for themselves in this new environment. Research from Rice University and Penn State examined whether military members would be comfortable working with gays and lesbians and whether gays and lesbians would receive equitable administrative actions. Surprisingly, gays and lesbians elicited more comfort from participants than their straight counterparts. In addition, there were no differences in intended administrative actions in response to poor performance between gays and lesbians and straight individuals. Finally, participant's attitudes towards openly gay service predicted their reported comfort ratings, but not their administrative actions. These results suggest that military members did not report being uncomfortable serving with openly gay individuals and that these individuals will not be penalized unjustly. This is good news, but it should be interpreted with caution since not finding evidence for something doesn't rule out the fact that it doesn't actually exist.
This study will be presented at the Annual American Psychological Association's Convention in July of 2013 by Larry R. Martinez, Charlie L. Law, and Michelle R. Hebl. For more information please contact Larry Martinez at martinez@psu.edu.
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Out & Equal Workplace Advocates™ is a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
Out & Equal is committed to ending employment discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees. We believe that people should be judged by the work they do, not by their sexual orientation or gender identity. Every day, we work to protect and empower employees to be productive and successful-so they can support themselves, their families, and contribute to achieving a world free of discrimination for everyone.
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