Originally published here.

Being an LGBTQ+-friendly company comes down to much more than simply non-judgemental allies occupying leadership positions.

LGBTQ+ friendliness is not a secret sauce of mysterious rainbow unicorn vibes. There are specific policies, benefits, and practices that can improve the lives of queer and trans people who work for your organization.

“If your organization wants to be known as an LGBTQ+-friendly organization, that’s a proactive mandate not a bumper sticker,” says DeVan Hankerson Madrigal, a queer woman who works as research manager at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “That means an organization is enacting policy or building cultural norms in the workplace because the status quo is hostile.”

In fact, the real-life experiences of LGBTQ+ people at companies over time has shown which environments are supportive of queer and trans people, and which are not. And queer and trans inclusion experts, as well as queer and trans employees in other fields, have identified best practices for fostering a welcoming culture.

Here’s an introductory list of ways to build an LGBTQ+-supportive workplace. Please note that this is meant to be used as a starting point, and is not exhaustive.

Benefits

Employee benefits that support queer and trans employees center around two main topics: family structure and medical care. Those are two areas in which queer and trans people’s life experiences and systemic support—outside of the workplace—often differ from straight and cisgender people’s.

Family-related benefits

“Companies that are doing their best in this work understand that LGBTQ+ people, because of their identities, have all types of different family structures,” says Raina Nelson, manager of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, which provides a benchmark for corporate policies, practices, and benefits that are pertinent to LGBTQ+ people. “The people that need to be involved in their lives may not be just a legal spouse or just a biological child.”

One example of this is bereavement leave: allowing employees to take paid time off for the death of a loved one who is not in their biological family or spouse. Another example is extending health benefits to include an employee’s domestic partner.

For queer and trans people who want to start a family, significant financial hurdles related to medical care might get in the way. Fertility support is often not covered by employer health care plans, but should be.

“When it comes to family formation benefits, LGBTQ+ folks may have families that don’t fit the cisgender heteronormative structures, and that should be reflected in the benefits offerings,” says Nelson.

“Companies can help fill in the gap and offer services to their employees, especially in states where the minimum health coverage does not include these services,” says Hankerson Madrigal. “It makes a difference if your journey to becoming a parent is not severely financially crippling.”

Employers can seek support from companies like Carrot and Kindbody, which manage company fertility benefits, including support for adoption and surrogacy.

Companies can also create robust parental leave policies, allowing for paid time off to care for a new child, which extend to any new parent, whether they carried the child or not, and whether they are married or not.

“At my employer, the leave policy uses same-sex couples as one of the examples in our materials. It can not be said enough, representation matters,” says Hankerson Madrigal. “You want to know that you're covered without having to ask.”

When these types of benefits do not exist in a workplace, queer and trans employees often end up spending time and energy advocating for the inclusion of benefits that support their needs.

Transition-related care benefits

Transgender people may seek medically necessary treatments including hormone replacement therapy and surgical procedures, in addition to mental health counseling.

And even for health care that is not transition-related, trans people often lack access to providers who are knowledgeable and competent about trans patients. Companies can work to ensure their insurance plans cover transition-related treatments and check that their plan’s provider network includes providers experienced with caring for trans patients.

This is especially important because some insurance companies specifically exclude transition-related health care. The HRC Foundation has a guide for employers on transgender-inclusive benefits.

Companies can stand out in their support of trans employees by ensuring that transition-related facial feminization surgeries and electrolysis are also covered, as this type of care can often be costly to pay for out of pocket. And they can ensure that employees can access short-term leave after a gender-affirming surgery.

Starbucks is one company known for having trans supportive health insurance policies and for supporting its employees through navigating health care and insurance. The email marketing company Mailchimp is another employer with trans-supportive healthcare policies.

Luna Cooper, an engineer who transitioned while working at Mailchimp, appreciated the support of HR employees in navigating care.

“There’s a lot of trans-related health care coverage,” says Cooper. “Of course, it’s a fight with insurance companies to actually get it paid for. We have HR people to help you actually get your coverage.”

You can read the complete report here.