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Genuine question (slightly off topic) - what does ‘lived experience’ mean? I’ve looked it up but still have never quite found a definition that makes sense to me - isn’t experience just knowledge gained from observing / living through facts and events? What does the ‘lived’ bit add? Isn’t all experience lived?!
To the original poster - no beef with what you’re seeking to achieve, seems like a goal that is certainly coming from a good place.
Ottomanotter-
Dunno where my comment went or if I didn't post it?
Basically lived experience kinda means impacted by. So for example, I'm white, while I've witnessed racism in action and have made efforts to combat it - inherently I still come from an understanding that structural racism on the by and large benefits me. I can't offer the experience to my POC friends of being able to speak to me knowing I know how it feels to be impacted by it. Inherently my socialisation as a white person has informed my experience, I'm sure I still hold lots of unconscious biases I am yet to uncover, we all do!
Likewise, as a trans person, I can speak to other trans people and they can know that I come from a place where I've had transphobia enacted upon me or I am affected by the rhetoric.
I'm inherently way less likely to hold unconscious biases because I've gone through my daily life noticing these things. It's not a failure of education or efforts to make change for people to notice these things, it comes part in parcel of being able to use your privilege for good.
So say for example, my previous workplace was very trans supportive and most of the team had been making efforts to educate themselves on trans issues and had witnessed transphobia. But it took me coming in as a trans person to go yo! If there's no bins in the men's toilets, it can be harder for trans men to use them. Wasn't a failure on other staff, was just a thing of my lived experience enabled me to bring up these issues as staff to improve the experience of our trans customers.
Really it's recognising that people who live through things have an inherent understanding, whereas people who don't have lived experience may be very aware and proactive, but as our learning comes from others experiences or media, there's points where we may unconsciously not pick up on things, may unconsciously exhibit behaviour which may effect marginalised people.
jjiimmii
This is partially what I work in as I moderate a film jobs board.
Legally, its a okay to state you're seeking people especially with lived experience of marginalised backgrounds and will consider candidates based on merit.
A non-white non-male identifying or trans person inherently can offer marginalised customers a feeling of safety and of being understood. It's completely fine to factor this into decision making.
At the end of the day, it's all about skills and those include interpersonal! IMO phrasing would be completely fine.