LGBTQQIAAP stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Allies and Pansexual. For many, you may formally recognize this acronym as LGBT or LGBTQ+. And you may be asking yourself, “why do the initials continue to grow?” Well, let us tell you in a single word – collaboration.
What this community has achieved, which has somehow remained outside the grasp of other diverse communities, is the ability to accept and collaborate with other affinity groups within their orbit instead of excluding them. Do LGBTQQIAAP people have different opinions? Yes. Do LGBTQQIAAP people want to achieve different goals? Yes. Do LGBTQQIAAP people disagree on the tactics to achieve their goals? Yes. But what this group has realized is that working together results in extraordinary achievements, and working apart results in a fractured community with lessened outcomes. In short, they are better together.
After reading the post today in The American Lawyer entitled “A Black Partner Responds to GCS on Law Firm Diversity,” this D&I co-chair was struck by a key component in the failure in the advancement of diversity and inclusion missing from the authors message. That missing component is collaboration among the various diverse groups who all want to achieve the same result – a diverse and inclusive legal community.
So, our challenge for you today is determine those groups with whom you should collaborate to achieve the diversity results you want. Because unless we work together, we all lose.