Out & Equal
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| Founded | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Selisse Berry |
| Type | Nonprofit Advocacy Organization |
| Focus | LGBT Workplace Discrimination |
| Location | |
| Method | Training, Advocacy and Programs |
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Key people
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Selisse Berry (Founder/Executive Director) |
| Slogan | Shaping the Future of Global LGBT Workplace Equality and Inclusion |
| Website | www |
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates (commonly known as "Out & Equal") is a United States lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workplace equality non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Out & Equal describes its organizational vision as, “To achieve workplace equality for all regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, or characteristics .” Out & Equal provides training and resources to LGBT employees and corporations alike through advocacy, training programs and events.
Out & Equal achieved 501(c)(3) status in 2004.
Out & Equal's mission is to “educate and empower organizations, human resource professionals, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and individual employees through programs and services that result in equal policies, opportunities, practices, and benefits in the workplace regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, or characteristics”.
Out & Equal's founder, Selisse Berry, was hired in December 1996 by the United Way of the Bay Area as director of the Building Bridges training program. The Building Bridges program developed partnerships with fellow LGBT organizations around the Bay Area. Berry ran the program and built coalitions as a single-person staff working out of the Pacific Center in Berkeley, California, and by September 1997 she moved into the United Way Bay Area (UWBA) offices in San Francisco.
By 1998, three LGBT workplace organizations merged in an effort to effectively collaborate on their common mission of creating safe and affirming workplaces for LGBT individuals—called the Pride Collaborative. These organizations included Building Bridges, A Group of Groups (AGOG), and Progress.
In 1999 The Pride Collaborative merged with COLLEAGUES, a national organization that sponsored the annual Out & Equal Conference aimed at human resource professionals and LGBT employees, to form Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, and the current organizational structure was born. That same year, Progress’s Leadership Summit and COLLEAGUES’ Out & Equal Conference combined resources to produce the annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit, one of the keystone programs of the organization.
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Wikipedia