Welcome to our LGBT+ staff pages.

Royal Holloway is a Stonewall Diversity Champion, dedicated to creating a workplace where LGTB+ staff can be themselves and reach their full potential. Stonewall is an LGBT+ rights charity which campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. Its key priorities are:

To empower individuals
To transform institutions
To change hearts and minds
To change laws

The Stonewall Workplace Equality Index is a benchmarking tool for employers to measure their progress on LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace. Employers who participate in this scheme are required to demonstrate their work in 10 areas of employment policy and practice. Staff across the organisation also complete an anonymous survey about their experience of diversity and inclusion at work.

Royal Holloway progresses on the Stonewall Equality Index scale with each submission: in 2015 we moved up 44 places from our previous submission, ranking 305 out of 397 institutions. In 2018 we moved up a further 31 places to 274 (out of 434 organisations who took part in 2018).

According to the 2018 Stonewall survey, 94% of LGBT+ respondents at Royal Holloway agreed that the workplace culture is inclusive of gay women/lesbians; and 94% agreed it is inclusive of gay men.

While these findings and improved rankings are very pleasing and show that we are moving in the right direction, we understand we have work ahead of us. For example, 79% of LGBT+ participants agreed that the workplace culture is inclusive of bi people and only 53% that it is inclusive of trans people.

As a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Royal Holloway benefitted from in-depth feedback session with a Stonewall representative. Following on from this, members of central E&D Team and the LGBT+ staff Network are in the process of designing an LGBT+ action plan to ensure that we further progress LGBT+ inclusion at Royal Holloway. One of our recent initiatives has been to launch an Introduction to Trans Awareness e-module. We have also developed a suite of E&D Guides which include How to be a Trans Ally and How to be an LGBT Ally guides.

Our ultimate aim, as stated in our new College Equality Objectives, is to be in Stonewall’s top 100 Employers, establishing Royal Holloway as one of the most inclusive employers in Britain by 2021.

LGBT+ Staff Network

Staff at Royal Holloway operate an LGBT+ Staff network. You can find out more about the network here. Alternatively, you can email the LGBT+ Staff Network.

Policies and guidance

Royal Holloway has developed a Dignity at Work: Anti-Bullying & Harassment Policy, which aims to explain the College Grievance Policy & Procedure and to support and empower staff to make appropriate complaints against bullying, harassment, victimisation and discrimination in the workplace.
Coming Out @ Work Guide – a step-by-step, evidence-based introduction to the coming out process in the workplace. This was prepared, for staff, by our LGBT Staff Network.
We have a Transgender Equality and Transitioning at Work Guidance (for staff) and will offer trans awareness workshops to staff to complement the documentation and guidance we have developed.
We have produced 'How to be a trans ally' and 'How to be an LGBT+ ally' good practice guides which can be found here.

Trans Awareness

Trans is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity does not correlate (in part or in whole) to the gender they were assigned at birth. There are many different gender identities that fall under the trans umbrella, including transgender, non-binary, agender, genderfluid and genderqueer. This list is not exhaustive; gender is a spectrum which includes man and woman, but lots of other variants and intersections in between and separate from these labels. Gender is distinct from sexuality, so a person can be heterosexual and trans.

Royal Holloway is currently developing a suite of actions to promote awareness of trans issues and provide support for trans colleagues and students. Support includes: