What the auto retail industry has gotten right and wrong about LGBTQ representation

Welcome back to Diversity in Automotive brought to you by TrueCar and CarNow. When we talk about the issue of diversity, a lot of times, based on the marketplace, people tend to think about diversity as it relates to color. However, gender and sexual orientation often get ignored.

In today’s segment, host Cory Mosley is joined by an esteemed panel of automotive retail professionals who are part of the LGBTQ community. This panel includes Danny Zaslavsky, the dealer of Country Hill Motors, Richard Herod the dealer of White Bear Mitsubishi, Hollyanne Peck the Director of Marketing at CarNow, and Tim Rickards, Senior Director of Operations and Performance also from CarNow.

The panel first tackles how diversity and inclusion mean different things to different based on where they come from. Next, they discuss what many decision-makers often get wrong when it comes to attracting, retaining, and promoting LGBTQ employees. Many people, in and out of business, make the argument that they don’t see color or gender; they simply hire the most qualified person. However, when employees look around and they don’t see themselves accurately represented, the fallacies of that argument become apparent. Lastly, as members of the LGBTQ community who are also in various positions of influence, our panel shares their views regarding the responsibility to hire other community members.

Join us next Thursday for another episode of Diversity in Automotive. Cory Mosley sits down with more auto retail professionals to discuss why employees enter but end up leaving the car business.


Did you miss last week’s episode of Diversity in Automotive? Watch it here now! And don’t forget to share your questions and comments with Jim Fitzpatrick at jfitzpatrick@cbtnews.com.

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