The COVID-19 crisis situation is changing every day, and as an LGBTI organisation you are going to want to keep your audience updated about what specifically matters to them. ILGA-Europe’s strategic communications consultant, Sho Konno, gives his key advice for communicating at this time.

As the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) develops on a daily basis, one of the most important tasks for any LGBTI group is to communicate with our community and other audiences. This guide is about how to take those first steps for your initial communication, and where to get more support afterwards, as clear communication will be needed regularly through this crisis.

Please note: this is not a guide about how to make decisions or adapt your activities during the COVID-19 crisis (click here for our tips on ‘rethinking 2020 for activist organisations). Rather it’s a guide about how to clearly communicate the decisions you’ve made and the activities you have become engaged in during this time.

1. Be brief

• Give a snapshot of what you are going to tell us. Does the title of your post just say ‘COVID-19 info’ or does it tell us what that info is about? Does the first line of your email tell us what is in the rest of the email? It’s important to give people a clear snapshot of what you are going to say.
• What’s new and what do we need to know first? If someone doesn’t scroll down, will they see your main message? Health and safety generally goes first.
• Be specific about and for the LGBTI community. Your audience is not expecting you to replicate general advice from the government to everybody. Unless you are prevented by specific threats, address lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people explicitly with the specific messages you have for them and their communities.
• What kind of updates will you give and where can we find them? It is sadly unlikely you will only have to communicate once, so set the expectation now that you will give regular updates, and tell people where they can find them.

2. Focus on the facts

• Give specific directions based on the local health guidance. Do not assume everybody is watching the news as much as you are, always link to the official guidance and then explain what that means for your context.
• Tell people what you do not know yet. Do not be tempted to think ‘we haven’t decided this yet so let’s just leave it out’. It is better to at least acknowledge that something is important to your audience but you do not have details yet, and that you will update them.
• Put a date on it. If it is a web page, for instance, it might be read at a later date. With a daily changing situation, it’s important to clearly date your communication, so people are clear whether it’s up-to-date.
• Don’t over-promise. For example, saying that every activity will happen “after things go back to normal” or will be transferred online may set false expectations. If you communicate your hopes but do not make promises, your audience should understand.
• Be clear why they should click on links. Linking to other resources is good, but if you are sending people to other sites then give them a quick explanation of what you are recommending in it. Don’t pass the work to your audience.

3. Stay human

• Talk about ‘we’ and ‘us’. You do this work and your audience supports you because of solidarity and a desire to fight for people. This is as good a time as any to simply say that and remind yourself and your audience about our shared purpose.
• It’s okay to say things are difficult. Whether it is funding, logistics or your team’s own health, do not feel like you have to ‘appear strong’. Recognising challenges and saying how you hope to deal with them is what true resilience looks like. Your audience will empathise and may have ideas of how to help.
• A personal touch is great. You are a human writing this communication, so allow yourself to include a bit of your personality or humour, like this LGBT foundation, which added a message of trans rights to hand-washing advice.

4. Test it from your audience’s perspective

• Get at least one person who did not make the draft to read the draft. Taking different perspectives on board can lead to clearer content.
• Imagine what steps your audience has to take. You are focusing on drafting the web page, but how do they get to it? What if they actually first find you through your website’s homepage, the voicemail on your office phones, or the description text on your Twitter/Instagram bio? And how are you proactively making sure it reaches the people who need to see it?
• Repeat one core message, even if you change the details. You may have updates to your webpage in future, or specific announcements to make on social media, but remember that for some of your audience this will be the first message they see, so try to always include a repetition or link to your original core message. And if you change that core message, update it in case someone only sees the first message (also see ‘Put a date on it’ earlier).

Here is a good example of COVID-19 communication from a small organisation:

What makes it good?

• It’s very short! Bullet points help our eyes to scan it quickly.
• There is specific direction on how the local official health guidance relates to their activities.
• It tells people what they probably want to know most urgently (‘Do I still have to submit by the deadline?’, ‘Do I have to give a refund for the cancelled event?’)
• It tells people where to get updates and how to keep in contact.
• It still includes a human message, but at the end, instead of a long philosophical piece of writing that you have to read past to get to the details.

What could be better

• The ‘COVID-19 Updates’ webpage that this newsletter links to lists all updates chronologically. This is helpful if someone returns to the page, but what if someone is reading it for the first time? Try to make sure any ‘COVID-19’ message or link has your main message summarised or linked to right at the top.

Maybe we will go ‘back to normal’ soon, but we should be prepared for a ‘new normal’ for potentially months to come. After you have made your initial communication, you can set up processes and strategies that will prepare you better for this crisis and other crises in future. Here are some resources that will be helpful in the longer run:

• A coronavirus crisis comms best practice guide (Prosper Strategies) Includes risk assessment, internal comms, and stakeholder/employee/services communication.
• Crisis comms for charities (Charity Comms) A more general guide with practical steps for preparing for future crises, especially ones that affect your reputation.
• Dealing with disinformation (Blueprints for Change) A crowd-sourced Google Doc with the latest tips from campaigns facing deliberate disinformation.

Over the past few years in Europe and some other parts of the world, we have seen the rise of the ‘anti-gender’ movement, with opposition to LGBTI rights centralised around so-called “gender ideology”.

“Gender ideology” has become an all-inclusive mobilising tool, used by various groups in the anti-gender movement (many of them religious), political parties and even state establishments to prevent equality policies from being adopted and implemented.

Our societies are built on stories. They shape how we understand our relationships, what relationships we value and pursue, and how we classify ‘us’ and ‘them’. That we can deny rights to people based on their country of origin, sexuality, or gender identity, is only possible due to a set of beliefs, or stories, about one group being more deserving than another.

At ILGA-Europe we are working on various fronts to better understand the anti-gender forces and their impact on public discourse and the lives and rights of LGBTI communities. By understanding ‘framing’ — how these stories interact with our thinking -campaigners and activists can craft their communications to effectively challenge the anti-gender rhetoric and create sustainable social change.

“Your silence will not protect you,” the feminist author and activist, Audre Lorde famously wrote. As activists we learn that speaking out goes beyond simply being the loudest voice in the room. How can we deliver our messages to those who do not fully support in our cause, but may be brought around? Based on our ongoing research, here are five recommendations to challenge anti-gender discourse.

1. Speak to people’s best selves

Even people who we don’t agree with share many of our motivations and want to do the best they can. Respecting the journey people may have to go on and acknowledging their discomfort are key to reducing prejudice.

2. Create common ground

Common grounds can be more easily understood when visibility is enhanced in areas such as workplace and the neighborhood, for example by showing shared objectives and struggles. The values and challenges LGBTI people and the rest of society have in common should be highlighted. Message testing however showed that when the rights discourse is translated into specific examples that people can easily relate to, the attitudes of respondents are more positive.

3. Talk about change

Raising awareness of discrimination against LGBTI communities won’t work if people don’t see how they can contribute to the solution. Our research showed that respondents often don’t understand how they can play a positive role in making change happen. Presenting the existing problem with ideas of how people can play a positive role in solving it, will help you to turn it around!

4. Make it real

To the wider majority, LGBTI people are largely invisible; that’s why requests for rights are often not understood or taken on board. As discrimination is not seen in their everyday lives, it is a good idea to show them that LGBTI people exist and give illustrations of our actual experiences. Concrete examples such as personal stories are very helpful, especially if associated with issues (like access to employment) that non-LGBTI people can relate to.

5. Don’t reinforce stereotypes

In some countries LGBTI activists quoted derogatory terms used by the anti-gender movement to refer to LGBTI people in their messages. However, this strategy triggered negative reactions in our research and was considered inappropriate and too challenging. To bring people on board with your message, use non-inflammatory language that everyone can get on board with.

In the last few years ILGA-Europe worked on various fronts to better understand the anti-gender movement and its impact on public discourse and the lives and rights of LGBTI communities.

Conservative and religious actors are collaborating nationally and transnationally against so-called ‘gender ideology’. Often referred to as the ‘anti-gender movement’, it is a growing coalition of conservative and religious forces, spreading hateful discourses to wedge public opinion, often targeting LGBTI people and their human rights, sexual and reproductive rights, sexual education, and gender studies. In some countries the discourse has led to mobilisation against significant national reforms.

Discourse about so-called ‘gender ideology’ is present in a large and growing number of European countries and due to social media and digital tools, these concepts and communication strategies travel fast. Despite some remarkable successes, it has so far been challenging for the LGBTI movement to respond effectively and to develop our own narratives to counter attacks. Developing new narratives, framing and testing our messages are crucial skills to succeed. 

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Background

In the last few years ILGA-Europe worked on various fronts to better understand the anti-gender movement and its impact on public discourse and the lives and rights of LGBTI communities. We collected research, monitored country situations, talked with activists, allies and researchers to better understand the phenomenon and its implications.  We have worked closely with member organisations in responding and resisting to attacks through our advocacy work but also contributing to build the movement’s capacity in this area.

In January 2019 ILGA-Europe hosted the workshop for LGBTI activists “Responding to the anti-gender movement: The rhetoric of the opposition, our movement’s capacities and ways to build our narratives”. The workshop aimed at sharing the information and experience gathered, and to discuss how to better tackle the anti-gender movement, not only through local and national strategies, but also through collaborative international efforts.

The results of this event were presented in June 2019 in the course of the webinar Lessons learned from the “Responding to anti-gender” workshop. 

If you are an LGBTI activist and you wish to receive the recording of the webinar please contact Svetlana Zakharova, ILGA-Europe’s Senior Programmes Officer: svetlana@ilga-europe.org.

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Research

In the course of the workshop activists identified frames that have been used so far and that they were planning to use again in the future tactics. Therefore the group decided to develop research to better understand the actual impact of these frames and the mental models around anti-gender discourse.

Objectives of the research

• Improve understanding of mental models around anti-gender discourse
• Test possible narratives, frames, messages to respond effectively
• Move from assumptions to systematic research.
• Analyse discourse outside capitals including in small cities
• Train members on the use of research and message testing
• Develop cooperation between LGBTI organisations and research agencies
• Provide members with a set of customised framing recommendations

Results of the research

The research project consisted in 3 focus groups in 4 countries and the main lessons learned were presented in the course of a webinar Testing narratives to respond to the anti-gender discourse: Results of the project that was held in December 2019.  

If you are an LGBTI activist and you wish to receive the recording of the webinar please contact Svetlana Zakharova, ILGA-Europe’s Senior Programmes Officer: svetlana@ilga-europe.org.

We will host a webinar on the results of the needs assessment that will inform ILGA-Europe’s capacity building work and donor funding strategies in the coming years.

ILGA-Europe conducted a strategic communications needs assessment to better understand how communications are currently being used, as well as the communications needs and capabilities of LGBTI organisations in Europe and Central Asia.

At the webinar you will hear from:

• George Perlov, Principal at George Perlov Consulting,
• Greg Czarnecki, Programme Officer at Open Society Foundation,
• Laura Piazza, Senior Campaign and Programmes Officer at ILGA-Europe and
• Bjorn Van Roozendaal, Programmes Director at ILGA-Europe.

The webinar will take place on Monday 3 February 2020 from 10.00 to 11.30 CET (Central European Time).

Are you campaigning for intersex rights in your country? Are you supporting intersex groups in their campaigning efforts? Discover how to frame your messages about intersex issues.

Register now for ILGA-Europe’s interactive webinar ‘Campaigning and message framing for intersex rights’.

REGISTRATION now CLOSED

ILGA-Europe will host an interactive webinar on campaigning and message framing for LGBTI activists and allies working on intersex rights. We will look into the experience of activists around Europe and put into practice the framing techniques we explored in the previous webinars of the strategic communication series.

You will hear from Audrey Aegerter, InterAction – Switzerland, Alessandro Comeni, OII-Italy, Irene Kuzemko and Loé Petit Collectif Intersexes et Allié.e.s. – OII France.

Watch our video recording of the webinar

Are you campaigning for legal gender recognition in your country? Discover how to talk about self-determination with policy-makers, media, allies and community members.

ILGA-Europe will host an interactive webinar on message framing for LGBTI activists and allies working on legal gender recognition based on self-determination. We will look into the experience of activists around the globe and put into practice the framing techniques we explored in the previous webinars of the strategic communication series.

You will hear from Mauro Cabral Grinspan, Executive Director of GATE; Sarah Phillips, Chair of TENI; Richard Koehler, Senior Policy Officer at TGEU, and Viktor Heumann, Director of Trans*parent.

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Registration closed

The webinar will take place on 11 September 2018 from 17 to 18.30 CEST (Central European Summer Time). 

This is a resource to help you test your messages. It is designed for campaigners who have little or no experience with message testing. 

When you communicate you usually have a good idea of what you want to say and the change you want to make. But how do you know it’s going to work? That’s where testing comes in. Testing tells you whether your choice of framing (the emphasis you put on particular concepts) is associated with the outcomes you are aiming for.

Testing helps you examine your assumptions about what will work and why. It helps you learn more about the people you communicate with. Quite simply, it makes your campaigns more likely to succeed.

This forthcoming guide is a resource to help you test your messages. It is designed for campaigners who have little or no experience with message testing. You will be able to use this guide if you’re working with a research company and want to be able to explain what you need and make sense of what they provide. You’ll also be able to use it to get more involved in testing messages yourself.

This toolkit is a short guide to strategic communications, based on extensive research and building on the experience of activists and communicators from around the globe.

It aims to provide a framework rather than a blueprint; helping you to ask the right questions rather than giving you the right answers. It’s designed to be helpful for anyone who communicates as part of their voluntary or paid work. It’s written with a focus on European LGBTI activists, but we hope it will be useful to others with a similar vision.

It was developed by ILGA-Europe alongside the Public Interest Research Centre.