A Gayborhood establishment recently made efforts to raise the bar in terms of its efforts to provide a better customer-service experience to the transgender community.
Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar held a trans-sensitivity workshop April 4 for all of its employees in an effort to make the staff and security more aware of and educated on issues specific to the trans community.
Mazzoni Center’s Jaymie Campbell, professional-development manager for LGBT health and capacity training, presented the roughly 75-minute workshop, titled “Creating Safer Spaces.”
The presentation touched on the different components of sexuality, such as the difference between “LGBQ” and “T,” gender-neutral language and the discrimination trans people face, with staff encouraged to ask questions.
“The goal of our training is to help people understand the basics of the language unique to the LGBT community, what the letters refer to, the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity and provide them with some specific strategies to put that knowledge to use,” Campbell said. “While you can’t learn everything in one session, we hope that, over time, these conversations will increase capacity by effecting real structural change.”
Campbell noted Tabu has already taken the lead on such structural changes by having gender-neutral bathrooms, but bars and restaurants could still improve by addressing how they check patrons’ ID cards.
“There are certain things you just don’t know until you go through the training,” said Tabu general manager Jeffrey Sotland. “While most of the staff members that we hire are in tune with the community, they may not be up to date on the particular nuances that can make a big difference.”
Sotland said about 95 percent of Tabu’s employees attended, including the security team, which Tabu contracts through an independent company.
“I think it was really important that our security team was there,” said Sotland. “Many of them have not had an interaction with the LGBT community before working at Tabu. They all said the workshop was very helpful.”
While there was no particular incident that prompted the workshop, Sotland said that after a staff member suggested it, he reached out to Mazzoni.
“We needed to understand the obstacles we create for the trans community every day without even realizing it, like not using gender-neutral pronouns,” said Sotland. “And we needed to be cognizant of the differences and diverse backgrounds of the people we interact with. Now we can communicate better with everyone that walks through the door. We want everyone to feel welcome and respected at Tabu.”