Throughout June, many of you might have been wondering where FINTRAIL’s commentary on Pride month was; we’ve posted before about the importance of diversity in anti-financial crime in helping to ensure effective but inclusive controls in any given AFC framework, and making sure LGBTQIA+ issues are encompassed as part of this is no exception. So, we thought it was time (in July 😣) to update you on where we are.
We held off marking Pride month with the addition of the rainbow symbol to our logo because we wanted to ensure that we were not guilty of rainbow washing; if we post about anything related to diversity, we want it to have tangible impact (even if it is small). What we realised as part of our discussions about Pride month was that we haven’t - in complete honesty - taken much specific action around LGBTQIA+ issues. While we are in the process of updating our parental leave policy to make the terms we use more inclusive and of course have very strong anti-discrimination policies, these feel like small, relatively standardised approaches.
We are clear that this needs to change. We are starting with a summary of some of the great initiatives that other organisations are working on and using that to inspire our own action:
Tide - we were really excited to see that Tide will be making regular donations to the Human Dignity Trust, a charity that works with LGBTQIA+ activists around the world to defend human rights in countries where private, same-sex, consensual sexual activity is criminalised. We also enjoyed Tide’s series on LGBTQIA+ founders, which you can read here.
Daylight - Daylight’s whole approach is tailored towards the specific needs of the LGBTQIA+ community and it’s great to see this business thriving in the US where - in some states at least - these communities have been marginalized to the extreme. Daylight’s products are designed specially for the LGBTQIA+ community, and aren’t simply “LGBTQIA+ friendly”.
Mastercard True Name campaign - having a name on your card that doesn’t reflect your true identity is a dehumanizing experience. This campaign from Mastercard demonstrates the challenges particularly the Trans community face in this regard and it’s great to see proactive action being taken by such a huge global brand.
Some of the early ideas we are exploring at FINTRAIL include:
Holding a lunch and learn session on pronouns, to help ensure the team is equipped with the knowledge to recognise and use appropriate pronouns.
Running a book club session focussed on books by LGBTQIA+ authors, to help us better understand the issues faced by the community both past and present.
Developing a simple check-list for firms, to make sure that their anti-financial crime policies are not accidentally (or inherently) biased against the LGBTQIA+ community.
Selecting a charity that supports LGBTQIA+ issues and donating or running fundraisers to support them.
We would love to hear from you about what initiatives we could support that would have a positive impact among the LGBTQIA+ community. Please add your suggestions in the comments below.