Recent discourse within the field of evaluation has come to emphasize the importance of cultural responsiveness across all aspects of evaluation work. However, these efforts to date have primarily centered on race and ethnicity, in addition to extensive discussion on the inclusion of women and girls in evaluation work. While both of these discussions are timely and merited, there are other dimensions of culture and identity within individuals and community groups that must be considered. In her 2017 Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment Conference keynote, Dr. Robin Miller called for the field to do better when it came to including sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) assessments within evaluation practice. To answer this call, it is crucial that evaluators have appropriate language, understanding, and actionable strategies to be inclusive of the LGBT community in their work.

This session will highlight the importance of LGBT cultural responsiveness and community inclusion both within evaluations tailored to this population, as well as in more general evaluation work, and will provide guidance for attendees to help strategize how they will implement this knowledge in their work moving forward.

Learning Outcomes:

1) The importance of collecting SOGI data (and how to do it right), and of exhibiting LGBT cultural competence and inclusion in their evaluation work.

2) Known disparities in, and current barriers to, LGBT health and wellbeing.

3) Common identity categories, terminology, and language that is inclusive and culturally responsive to the LGBTQ community.

4) Actionable strategies for overcoming anticipated barriers and integrating lessons learned into evaluation design and implementation.