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IP Non-traditional Family Network, IP Out, Third party events, Webinars

Marking LGBT+ History Month
with CITMA

Wednesday 9 February 2022
12.30 – 1.30 pm

 

CITMA’s exploration of how to build a professional environment supportive of LGBT+ individuals in non-traditional families.

 

The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) kindly invited IP Inclusive supporters to their free webinar to mark LGBT+ History Month in February.

With increasing representation of non-traditional families, both in professional settings and in wider society, it is crucial for organisations to understand how they can better support LGBT+ employees with the challenges associated with surrogacy and adoption. The webinar discussed how to do that, and additionally explored how organisations can ensure their parental leave policies are inclusive of non-traditional families.

For LGBT+ couples without children, there can still be issues around balancing home and work identities, with many people feeling uncomfortable bringing up their partners at work or bringing them to work events. The panel identified ways in which firms can ensure that all employees, particularly those in same-sex relationships, feel happy to be open about their identities and families at work. The webinar also touched on the work of IP Inclusive’s IP Non-traditional Family Network, which exists to support IP professionals – including LGBT+ people – in all sorts of non-traditional family groups.

 

Panellists

  • Rob Davey (Clarivate); LGBT+ inclusion champion; named in The Guardian‘s Pride Power List in both 2020 and 2021
  • Triona Desmond (Pinsent Masons); member of CITMA Council and the IP Inclusive Women in IP and IP Out committees; Stonewall Educational Role Model
  • Anne Wagner (Abel + Imray)

 

Learning outcomes

  • How your organisation can better support LGBT+ employees in facing challenges around surrogacy and maternal/paternal leave and what policies they can put in place to make their workplace more inclusive.
  • The unique challenges that are faced by LGBT+ employees in a workplace if they are in a non-traditional family or thinking about starting one.
  • How organisations can educate their workforce on different types of families at work to promote more inclusive views of family.

 

Follow-up resources

CITMA have published an article on this topic, based on the webinar discussions, which you can access here. The webinar recording is available here.

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