The First of These is Love: Clarifying Redwoods’ Approach to Inclusion
The mantra of Love. Serve. Transform. is at the heart of what we do here at Redwoods. It’s no accident that Love is the first word here—because it is critically important that we come at our work from a place of love, for all people, and for all communities. That means love for people who hold different views than our own. But it also means love for those—including and especially our own employees—who may be harmed or excluded by how those views translate into practice.
Here’s what that means for us, and for the customers we work with:
- We believe that all people—regardless of their race, age, sex, gender, gender expression or sexual identity—have a right to safety, equity, inclusion and opportunity.
- We believe that love is love—and that the morality of romantic or sexual relationships between adults is based on the pillars of consent and respect, not the gender, sex or gender identity of those involved.
- We believe that the organizations we insure are places of safety and professionalism, meaning that sexual activity of any kind—between staff or program participants—cannot be allowed.
- We believe that our staff have a right to bring their whole self to their work—and we will do all we can to create an environment where they can be who they are in the course of their work, including when visiting or working with our customers.
- We whole heartedly reject and oppose practices such as conversion therapy, workplace discrimination against LGBTQ individuals, or exclusion of members or program participants based on gender identity, sexual orientation or marital status.
We are a mission-aligned insurance company, meaning we work closely with the organizations we insure to create safe communities for all. It is not possible for us to do that work with organizations that discriminate against individuals based on their sex, sexuality, gender, gender identity, religion or race. We will not work with any organization that does so.