Listen to the employee's thoughts, ideas, emotions, etc. about your organization's decision to address holidays and events that recognize and honor GLBT employees. You may hear such things as:
• What they do is against my religion.
• I'm against gays and lesbians and I won't have anything to do with them.
• I don't want to hear or learn about gays and lesbians.
• They offend me and I feel that talking about them at our company creates a harassing environment for me.
• This is a business and shouldn't get involved in people's sexuality.
Thank the person for sharing his/her perspective. You may even want to summarize it so he/she feels heard and understood.
The way I would then respond is:
Acknowledge what the person says and feels. For example, "I understand that you are offended by the newsletter article(s)." "I hear that you believe that the gay and lesbian lifestyle is against God." "I understand that you don't think we should address issues of sexuality at work." "I can see that, believing as you do, you don't want to read or attend anything about or featuring Gays and Lesbians."
Then I'd say something like, "You have a right to your feelings and opinions. You have a right to your values and religious beliefs. I am not going to try in any way to change them nor should anyone else here."
"However, we do have corporate policies/ guidelines/values (select and quote ones from your policy manual that reinforce respect, personal choice, appreciation of diversity, etc.) that require you to treat everyone with respect. That means that, while you're at work, we expect you to act and speak respectfully and non-judgmentally with and about everyone. To clarify, everyone includes those who are gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual and those who support them, read about them, have relationships with them and attend events to learn about GLBT issues."
Remind him/her that your organization is renting his/her behavior while at work and has the right to expect him/her to act in ways that are in alignment with your values, mission and goals.
To directly tie it to the business, emphasize that one of your goals is to increase market share. One market segment where you and all smart organizations are looking to for growth is the GLBT community. Your organization knows that in order to effectively attract, serve and retain the GLBT market, they must have members of the workforce that reflect the GLBT market. To attract the best GLBT employees, you want a culture where they feel respected and accepted.
Thus, they will demonstrate their support by doing things like printing articles like the one on Gay Pride Month. They will support community events. You also know that creating an inclusive culture depends on the day to day behaviors of every employees. This is where you come in. Are you willing to do that?"
Based on his/her response, you may have to do more coaching.
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