From History to Allyship in Action:
An LGBTQIA+ History Month Program

for Cozen O’Connor LLP

Lex will be facilitating programming for Cozen O’Connor’s LGBTQIA+ History Month Celebration on October 20th!

This is a private event.

 

Event Description

This program pairs storytelling with practical skill-building to celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month in a way that's grounded, useful, and engaging for a mixed audience of attorneys and staff. It moves through three connected pillars, each building on the last, carrying the same thread of celebration, resiliency, empowerment, and action throughout.

We begin with history — a working understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community's milestones, movements, and the transcestors and elders whose stories are so often left out of standard trainings. This foundation gives the room a shared context and something to celebrate before it becomes a springboard into action.

From that foundation, we turn to a workplace moment history prepares us for: knowing how to respond with care when a colleague comes out. Attendees leave this section with specific, practicable language for that moment, replacing uncertainty with confidence.

Finally, the session extends that same care into an everyday practice — hands-on allyship tools, including using pronouns and inclusive language with confidence, and the difference between calling someone out and calling them in, a distinction that keeps accountability constructive rather than punitive.

Delivered with the same high-energy, empowering style as the "Taking Up Space" program, this session is designed to be substantive without being heavy — leaving participants informed, equipped, and ready to carry that energy forward, genuinely glad they came.

Topics & Themes

  • LGBTQIA+ History — the people, milestones, and movements that shape our understanding of the community today, and why that history matters, including lesser-known history predating Stonewall, highlighting the transcestors and elders whose stories are often left out of the narrative

  • How to Support Someone Who Comes Out — practical language and steps for responding with care in the moment, whether you're a colleague, manager, or friend

  • Allyship Tools — building an everyday practice of inclusion and affirmation, including:

    • Pronouns

    • Inclusive and affirming language

    • “Call in” versus “call out” approaches to accountability and repair

Objectives & Goals

  • Build a shared, foundational understanding of LGBTQIA+ history and why it's relevant to the firm's culture of belonging, while celebrating the community and its accomplishments

  • Equip attorneys and staff with concrete, low-stakes language for supporting a colleague who comes out

  • Translate allyship from concept to everyday practice: pronouns, inclusive language, and respectful accountability

  • Create a space, open to the whole firm, where every attendee leaves with at least one tool they can use immediately

Takeaways

  1. Critically think about areas of improvement to better support queer, non-binary and trans people using an inclusive and affirming understanding of gender and sexuality in our proactive allyship

  2. Gain an inclusive and affirming understanding of gender and sexuality

  3. Leave with tangible tools, best practices, and next steps to utilize as an effective ally in action to queer, non-binary and trans people and/or for self-advocacy

  4. Gain more confidence in how to utilize advocacy tools (proactive and/or reactive)

 

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