It’s vital for organizations to understand the unique risks inherent to the LGBTQ community, particularly when traveling to higher-risk destinations, and to discuss duty of care responsibilities for your global workforce. Prevailing laws in some countries criminalize same-sex relationships and associate harsh penalties for even perceived behavior. In contrast, other countries restrict the possession of certain medications that LGBTQ individuals may use. Travel documentation has also become an increasing risk for LGBTQ travelers. The unique risks that LGBTQ individuals face highlight the need for a comprehensive duty of care program reflective of diverse workforces. At Crisis24, our team of analysts keep a constant watch on the ever-changing LGBTQ legal and societal landscape. In this episode of The Risk Insight, Neil Sachs sits down with Jessika Turner and Danielle Ellam to discuss the importance of a risk management program that factors in potential threats to LGBTQ personnel and considerations to ensure the safety of your employees. Jessika and Danielle share insights into the risk profile and operating environment for higher-risk locations and provide recommendations for organizations looking to implement a comprehensive duty of care program – from pre-trip travel planning to contingency planning, corporate policies, access to accurate and timely intelligence alerts, and more.
Experts Featured in this Episode
About the Periodic Risk Intelligence & Security Monitor (PRISM) Report
The annual subscription assesses the threat environment faced by members of the LGBTQ community. Each quarterly and annual report provides in-depth country assessments and trend analyses of global attitudes, events, and issues that have the potential to affect the safety of LGBTQ individuals. Included are country-by-country security risk rating and trend analysis assessments for more than 200 countries, in-depth assessments of threats in areas of higher risk; details of events and on-going issues for LGBTQ individuals; global developments that significantly impact the safety, security, and rights of the LGBTQ community; and LGBTQ Security Risk Rating maps to help you make informed decisions.
To learn more about the PRISM subscription, visit: https://crisis24.garda.com/lp/crisis24-request-report-prism.
Welcome to The Risk Insight, a Crisis24 podcast taking a closer look at the risk and security issues facing organizations around the world today. And now, here's your host, Neil Sachs.
Neil: Welcome to this latest edition of The Risk Insight. I'm your host, Neil Sachs, and I'm very excited to have you joining us today. Amid Pride Month, we are here to discuss people risk management and the LGBTQ community and what that means for your organization's people security risk program. During the episode, we'll discuss why an organization would want to incorporate LGBTQ-specific guidance in their people risk program to include things like what security concerns may look like and how they've changed over time. And as we near the end of the episode, we'll close out by looking forward at some factors that may affect the LGBTQ community and ways that organizations can position their security programs to accommodate this. I have two special guests with me joining me in the booth, Jessika Turner and Danielle Ellam, who are two of our analysts supporting our PRISM team. Thanks for joining us today and participating in this episode; it’s such a relevant topic, especially being June and Pride Month. Jessika and Dani, before we kick off here, would you mind giving our listeners a little bit of a background on yourselves and your experience and knowledge in this side of the intelligence world?
Jessika: Thank you, Neil, for the introduction. And looking forward to today's topic. My name is Jessika Turner, and I'm part of Crisis24’s embedded intelligence services team, and in doing so, supporting one of our multinational clients for PRISM. I've authored several in-depth analyses on topics such as navigating HIV/AIDS and medical challenges for international travel, as well as strategic outlooks on major events with respect to potential effects to the LGBTQ community such as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the COVID-19 pandemic and the US political environment.
Dani: Hi, Neil. I'm My name is Daniel Ellam. I'm also part of the embedded intelligence services team supporting a multinational client. With regards to PRISM, I've also authored some analysis on trends and regional threat level changes to the LGBTQ community over the past half-decade or so. I've also contributed to our periodic global threat reviews focusing on LGBTQ threads in EMEA and Latin America.
Neil: Thanks, Danni. So thank you both for sharing a bit about yourselves. Clearly, you have some expertise and experience on this topic. So let's get started here; why should you care? That's the question, which, as we all know, can be associated with so many things today. However, Jessika, can you share how the Crisis24 PRISM team advises and guides organizations on justifying the need for LGBTQ risk management information and guidance?
Jessika: Sure. So that's a great question, as far as you know, justifying the business use case for it. The ultimate reason for why any given member of a company's leadership or security team or human resources team should care about this is that incorporating these, you know, LGBTQ-specific guidance and considerations falls within comprehensive duty of care. In this case, we're expanding on a company's concept of duty of care, not only by including LGBTQ individuals in the considerations given, but by taking it one step further and actually offering specific risk management solutions and being mindful of how we actually present that information and how individuals might access it. The benefits, you know, they don't stop there. Not only is there an inherent benefit, you know, to protecting your people on a personal level and accommodating all of your employees, but it can also help perpetuate this positive reputation for your company and for your brand. And for your culture as well. So generally, in minimal- and low-threat countries such as the United States, there are laws and expectations for considering discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. And we've seen more and more companies, particularly this time of year, as you mentioned, Neil, with PRIDE Month prioritizing space for their LGBTQ employees, and we want to take this opportunity to kind of discuss what that means with respect to risk management and travel security.
Neil: Great, great. Thanks, Jessika. Definitely, some good reasons to care there. We know there are plenty of risks out there when people travel; however, when we think about the LGBTQ community specifically, what risks or concerns have we identified for organizations to guide their LGBTQ community?
Dani: Right, so there are a number of risks that are specific to LGBTQ persons. The first thing to consider is that these risks and threats are going to vary quite significantly from the region you're traveling in the country you're traveling in, and even the locality within a country. So you would probably have a more diverse population within an urban area as opposed to a rural commune. Then you can also break it down further into considerations you should take before travel and threats during travel. Before travel, you should take some time to understand the legality of same-sex sexual acts, same-sex marriage, and adoption during your intended destination of travel. You also need to consider gender markers on travel documentation, and if those will present any issues during your travel, and traveling with prescriptions such as hormones or treatment for HIV and AIDS, and any access to healthcare you may need while you're traveling. Then, during your travel, threats that could be experienced by LGBTQ persons can range from verbal harassment and hate speech to being bought entry from certain venues, physical harassment, and then even physical assaults on the higher end of the scale. Again, this varies by region. An example of a low-level consideration would be that a non-binary or gender non-conforming individual may be expected to adhere to certain dress codes enforced for different genders within MENA, or in areas that have a particularly high Muslim majority population.
Neil: Thanks, Dani, such great feedback and you referenced the preparation, right. And I feel that that's such an important aspect for when traveling is, you know, as you mentioned, the need to know is right before heading out on your trip. And then of course, while you're traveling throughout your destination or destinations. Do you believe these considerations only apply to the LGBTQ community or to those traveling with them, such as family members, friends, colleagues, etc.?
Dani: Yeah, these considerations definitely expand to more than just an LGBTQ traveler. It's also worth noting that these threats can be very real to a person who does not identify as LGBTQ but as perceived to be LGBTQ. So that goes for travelers who identify as travelers who are presumed to be and then those who are accompanying them. The threat levels are also going to vary within certain regions.
Neil: And it's interesting with the perceived aspect there. For our listeners that are not familiar, I want to take a pause for a moment and share that the Crisis24 global intelligence team creates and manages what we call Country Security Risk Assessment Ratings (CSAR) for locations around the globe. These ratings are on a sliding scale of one through five, with one being the minimal risk and five being severe. Essentially, three, and as we get up to four, and of course, five is severe, they paint the picture of the threat environment for the location of travel. Similarly, Jessika and Dani, and the rest of the team, monitor our proprietary LGBTQ security ratings daily with all the different global events over the past few years, and it's hard to believe that we've had global events outside of COVID-19, with everyone's head down on that, but, you know, certain environmental and other security events of nature, as the threat environment towards the LGBTQ community changed at all, essentially.
Dani: We have actually done an analysis on the threat levels across all regions, and we found very little upwards or downwards movement and threat levels over the past five years. This is due to a number of interconnected factors, namely social attitudes, policy change at various levels of government, and the enforcement of laws either protecting or discriminating against personas within the LGBT community. What we see instead of large changes is smaller changes within one of these areas. The largest shifts in threat level often require collective movement in all these areas, which takes longer periods of time. So now the threat level is pretty much unchanged, and it's likely to remain this way for a while to come.
Neil: Thanks, Dani. Sounds like the good news with all that is that the locations that are tagged with low threat law holes haven't risen during the recent years, again, with the ever-changing world we live in. That's fabulous. What are some of those factors that would cause a change in threat levels? Again, up or down, right, as our team is, is monitoring all this?
Dani: Sure. So firstly, you're absolutely correct that low-threat level countries are typically remaining within that range, and we're not seeing massive spikes and changes there. With regards to factors of change, they would often be some combination of various factors that we previously mentioned. Say a shift in social norms that could lead to the implementation of new legislation. Alternatively, they could happen in sustained social oppression areas, which has not been actioned by a change in leadership and high-level policy and lawmaking. And Another factor that we can't disregard is the power of social media and reporting instances of abuse towards LGBTQ persons. So oftentimes, the abuse that we see reported is at the hands of security forces within an area, prompting social outcry and potential policy change with relation to that specific incident. For example, like you said, there's been a lot of focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, we saw a lot of movement restrictions guided by various factors such as date of birth, age, even license plate numbers, and then in some instances, we had gender-based restrictions. The catalyst here for change was reports of harassment of transgender persons with regards to gender markers on ID documents, culminating in increased social pressure and media attention. In one location where this gender-based lockdown was enforced, it was actually disbanded after eight days due to public outcry following reports of harassment of transgender persons specifically by law enforcement.
Neil: Let's close out the episode with our last topic, which of course, is a two-parter. The first is the future. Right? So Jess, given Dani's recap of what we've seen in the last few years, do you mind sharing what we think the future of risk management specifically for the LGBTQ community may look like? Sure.
Jessika: That's a great question. So to the first question, there are a lot of factors that we're taking into account when looking. Ultimately, everything is very much in flux. But obviously, the biggest variable that we're tracking is how COVID-9 has altered travel in general and then specifically for LGBTQ individuals. For now, some ideas that we're tracking is the idea that travel still hasn't reached pre-pandemic numbers in many places. We are at a crucial time for understanding how you know COVID-19-related anti-LGBTQ sentiment translates to threats or travel considerations. We see in some instances, even in lower threat countries where the LGBTQ communities were actually blamed for causing or spreading COVID-19 which could indicate public opinions changing, you know, as Dani mentioned, that something that is really important for how we're assessing, you know, threats to LGBTQ travelers or individuals. But it still isn't super clear on how this will translate to foreign nationals or LGBTQ tourism because we're in the evidence-gathering phase of this. Additionally, COVID-19 has normalized or brought on this need for medical documentation for traveling if we've seen with proof of vaccination, proof of recovery note from a doctor, those kinds of things. With respect to the LGBTQ community that this could mean that conversations with doctors about medical documentation needed for travel could get a little bit easier - navigating conversations about caring or documenting the need for gender affirmation hormones or HIV/AIDS protection or treatment medications. Those are some things that might get easier. Additionally, the widespread use of masks now for international travel has actually helped. We've seen some anecdotal evidence saying that it's helping in avoiding potential misgendering from security personnel, tribal security, or border security entities.
Neil: Great, thanks, Jess. All excellent forecasts. Would either of you close out our episode with what you believe are some best practices or considerations that organizations may consider to address the need for their LGBTQ risk management. And again, in protecting and informing the LGBTQ community within the organization.
Jessika: Certainly, so, most importantly, and one of the first things that we really tried to drive home is, do not assume that you will know if someone is a member of the LGBTQ community in order to provide this information. We recommend that the company have resources passively available so that someone doesn't have to disclose being in the LGBTQ community in order to receive it. Make sure that you know it's available someone passively can access it, and then also, make sure that they're included in every trip brief. Additionally, we recommend having a company-wide protocol on individual risk thresholds. We recommend empowering your employees with this actionable information, regardless of whether or not they've disclosed it in order to be able to make an informed decision if travel to that specific region or country is feasible and if they feel comfortable doing that. Another thing is that we typically recommend considering identifying gaps or assumptions in your company's travel and security policy. Does it accommodate individuals of varying risk profiles, such as LGBTQ travelers, for example, in a country where being part of the LGBTQ community or being perceived as such, is illegal and your employee experiences harassment? Consider how you would recommend navigating or engaging with local authorities and reporting the incident without accidentally incriminating themselves and having that extra consideration that that extra, you know, layer of risk management there, taking a step back from less of an operational perspective, but more of a strategic perspective. From a corporate and brand reputation and aspects, perhaps consider how your company's pro-LGBTQ stance and how that may affect those traveling are representing your company abroad in countries that may be a high or severe threat. As we've seen, the world is getting smaller, so to speak. And so regional differences in LGBTQ acceptance can play a role in how your brand is viewed; what might be accepted in one region might actually be, you know, not tolerated, or not appreciated in another in another region of the world as Dani mentioned, that it does, it does vary. And so take that into account. Finally, asking yourselves these sorts of questions and looking at your travel and personnel risk management are all steps towards providing comprehensive duty of care.
Neil: Jessika, Dani, thank you so much for joining me today. This was a lot of fun. I certainly believe that you guys provide great insight to our listeners today. So again, thank you for taking the time from your busy day to sit with me.
Jessika: Sure. Thank you for having us.
Dani: Thanks for having us on.
Neil: You're always welcome back in the studio here. So you know with all the discussion points today, I can certainly envision organizations taking some time to review their risk management program and objectives and consider how to best prepare and protect their LGBTQ community for traveling or even beginning to travel right in prepping for listeners out there to learn more about Crisis24’s PRISM annual report and quarterly newsletter, please view the podcast episode details. Of course, check Crisis24.com To listen to any of our past episodes, and while there, don't forget to subscribe to the risk insight podcast and you'll be notified of upcoming episodes as we share them. So until next time, I'm Neil Sachs. Travel smart and be safe.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the risk insight. Please subscribe to the show wherever you consume podcasts. And for more information on today's topic, please visit us on the web at Crisis24.com.