Antonia Knifton, Engagement and Experience Senior Adviser and Co-Chair for NECS Inclusion Network, shares her personal experience regarding Pride Month which takes place each June
“This month, alongside other public sector organisations, colleagues from across the CSUs’ Staff LGBTQ+ and Inclusion Networks will be celebrating Pride. When I’m busy it can be easy to notice the changes that I’ve experienced in the workplace over the years and wonder: Do I still need to find time to do this, as things seem so much better?
“I remember my first Pride. It poured; it looked like lightning might strike the iconic Old Town skyline at any moment, a huddle of police in their distinctive rubberised smocks and kepis easily out-numbered the patchy crowd three-to-one. I heard whistles, klaxons and the thrum of drum and bass picked out from the steady roar of traffic on the boulevards. No road closures then, no barriers and family crowds jostling for the best views, no street sellers’ makeshift carts brimming with rainbow flags, hats and plastic beads. Pink and black marked out the marchers from the onlookers at my first Pride, as minute by minute, in twos and threes, people unzipped raincoats, showing slogan t-shirts and putting on caps. It was a different time, as much protest as party, the homemade cardboard signs handed out by volunteers spelled Dance = Life.
“This month I will be still, quietly celebrating the simple moments in my working life, moments that should be ordinary, but weren’t always. I’ll notice all the informal chat about weekend plans, families, all the casual getting-to-know-you exchanges that add up to create trust, confidence, learning and collaboration with colleagues, while picturing the now ubiquitous rainbow beads. Each bead is just that, a coloured bead, it’s only the full strand that symbolises so much more.
“I reflect that every life story, every colleague’s unique experience is a litany of firsts. There’s a first time for every moment of opening to others and being your whole self, a whole pile of beads, a fresh rainbow to string in every new workplace encounter. With so much change around us, every change can mean a tiny opportunity, a tiny risk, another tiny worry: a new project, line manager, team, commute, community. In among all that change I have so much to be grateful for, personally and professionally, but I feel yes, I do still need to find time for Pride.
“What we’ve gained in the workplace is so fragile, the thread so easily broken. How quickly the beads of confidence in equal opportunity to progress, in feeling welcome, in feeling comfortable in your team and safe in your office could be scattered, trampled underfoot like the sodden cardboard left on the cobbles after my first Pride. Those signs may not have survived the rain, I may have misplaced that pink and black t-shirt years ago, but it means as much to me to celebrate my thirtieth Pride as my first. I remain hopeful that the small acts I try to find time for string together to make this everyone’s Pride.”
