This Is The Best Place To Work If You’re LGBT

Every year, gay rights charity Stonewall release their list of Britain's most inclusive employers. They've been doing it for 12 years, and it serves as an encouraging way for employers to take stock of their practices around lesbian, gay, bi and trans inclusion in their organisation. This year, security agency MI5 were found to be the UK's most LGBT-friendly workplace (insert joke here about how they'd also be the best equipped to rig the survey), with Lloyds Banking Group, National Assembly for Wales and social housing provider B3Living following close behind. A spokesperson from Stonewall told Refinery29: "Visible role models can have a dramatic impact on workplace equality because people can actually see support for equality within their organisations. And for LGBT people that is essential because it enables them to be themselves. And people always perform better when they can be themselves." The need to pat companies on the back for how they treat LGBT staff also serves as a useful reminder that there are still a lot of hostile working environments for LGBT people in 2016. Despite laws existing to protect people to be discriminated against for being LGBT, this still takes place in workplaces. MI5 could set an example for other employers then, when it comes to representation and diversity. The agency's director general Andrew Parker made this official statement: "Diversity is vital for MI5, not just because it’s right that we represent the communities we serve, but because we rely on the skills of the most talented people whoever they are, and wherever they may be." Read Stonewall's full report here.