Posts

Link BBC LGBTQplus news

Latest LGBTQ+ News from the BBC

Reflecting on my first year as co-founder and co-chair of AXA XL’s LGBT+ network in London

,

One of our proudest achievements was creating rainbow lanyards and having these worn across the entire London office - this may seem small but it has had a profoundly positive impact, with it communicating the message "you are welcome here". We have also had colleagues share their personal stories to incredibly positive reception. 

What Pride means to Me

Being visible, confident and content in yourself can give others the feeling of security that they need to take the next step and be open about themselves. I have experienced this personally when working for my first company, they had no LGBT+ network and nobody in my department or vicinity that was visibly LGBT+. I didn’t have the confidence to tell my colleagues as I was unsure about how it might affect the way people treated me. Eventually, I joined a different company where I had visible gay colleagues and it gave me confidence that if they could be out at work without out any issues so could I. After coming out to my colleagues my visibility within my team allowed a colleague who had worked for the company for almost 3 years to finally come out. Seeing the change in that person was remarkable, they transformed from being one of the most reserved team members to one of the most social.