Federal Prisons to Address LGBT Employees' Concerns

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has agreed to add an LGBT representative to the diversity program at each of the 120 prisons it operates in the U.S.

Equality Florida, which has pushed for the move, made the announcement today. This will ensure that the concerns of LGBT employees are addressed and that each facility will have at least one event a year dealing with LGBT issues.

Equality Florida managing director Brian Winfield met a year ago with employees of the state’s Coleman Federal Correctional Complex to plan the first LGBT staff event within the bureau. It was held last June for Gay Pride Month.

“I am so proud to have worked with this group of employees whose efforts impacted national policy,” Winfield said in a news release. “It is only because they believed that LGBT individuals and issues needed more visibility, and because it was the right thing to do, that employees at federal prisons now have a place at the table within the Bureau of Prisons.”