Speaker 1: My name's Klobe Walley. My pronouns are they she and
Speaker 1: I'm a data engineer at BP.
Speaker 2: My name is orn Devlin. My pronouns are hate him
Speaker 2: and I work within City Global Sourcing Staffing Office.
Speaker 3: I'm Jackie Roaldeger. I'm a litigation lawyer at Hogan Levels
Speaker 3: International LLP. My pronouns are sheet and her.
Speaker 4: My name is Harry Randall. My pronouns are hear him.
Speaker 4: I'm an associate in the UK investment bank at Jeffrey's
Speaker 4: International Limited.
Speaker 2: I have previously worked in organizations where I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: been comfortable in being out in the workplace, and I
Speaker 2: suppose that that was a factor whenever I was looking
Speaker 2: for new roles and new opportunities. I went into the
Speaker 2: recruitment process within Seady knowing where they stood on social issues,
Speaker 2: and that was a key aspect of where I wanted
Speaker 2: to work next.
Speaker 3: When I first into the legal industry, my Monday morning
Speaker 3: routine typically consisted of rehearsing lines on the tube to
Speaker 3: the much dreaded question what did you do at the weekend?
Speaker 3: Because I was terrified that if I revealed too much,
Speaker 3: I was out myself. At that point, I was introduced
Speaker 3: to laury Ad, another law fir, and she told me
Speaker 3: that overall her experiences had been very positive, and that
Speaker 3: really calmed me down, and so, yeah, now I'm very
Speaker 3: open about my sexuality at work and very comfortable to
Speaker 3: be out.
Speaker 1: When I first joined industry straight out of university, I
Speaker 1: was very much closeted, having been previously very out and
Speaker 1: very vocally actively involved in the community. There's this really
Speaker 1: interesting statistic, actually, research from twenty eighteen that states that
Speaker 1: over forty percent of young people, that's people ages eighteen
Speaker 1: to twenty five go back in the closet and they
Speaker 1: start their first job, And that was definitely my initial experience.
Speaker 1: As soon as I realized that it was a safe space,
Speaker 1: and as soon as I saw other people in the
Speaker 1: industry in the office at work being out and that
Speaker 1: being okay, I immediately reverted to how I had always
Speaker 1: been very vocal, very active in the community.
Speaker 4: Moving into the work workplace was the first time that
Speaker 4: I was fully out as a gay man, and I think,
Speaker 4: particularly at university, the decision to actually come out was
Speaker 4: something that was taken out of my control because words
Speaker 4: travel quick, so I was very keen to make sure
Speaker 4: that When I moved into the workplace, I was in
Speaker 4: control of that and I chose on what terms I
Speaker 4: told people. I picked the right conversations at the right time,
Speaker 4: because you will never stop coming out. And making sure
Speaker 4: that you feel comfortable doing that around certain people is
Speaker 4: driven by role models who have done that in the past.
Speaker 4: You can see from their experience that actually everything turns
Speaker 4: out quite all right.
Speaker 3: When I started as a trainee lister at Clifford Chance,
Speaker 3: I had the privilege of meeting more senior lesbian lawyers,
Speaker 3: and you know, they were fine. They'd been at the
Speaker 3: firm throughout their whole career, and that gave me a
Speaker 3: lot of confidence, and I became the firm's LGBTQ RAP.
Speaker 3: But when I left clither Chance to go to a
Speaker 3: US firm, I didn't see any role models, and it
Speaker 3: was quite difficult because it's very It is a distraction
Speaker 3: being in the cuset. You're wasting a lot of energy
Speaker 3: thinking about am I going to be found out? You know,
Speaker 3: it's quite CAZy and your answers. You can't really bond
Speaker 3: the people as well, because you're sort of hiding things
Speaker 3: and so normal as I can't emphasize the importance of them,
Speaker 3: because visibility matters. If you don't meet people like you,
Speaker 3: you can start to think there's something wrong with the
Speaker 3: way that you look.
Speaker 2: I think when we talk about leadership and role models.
Speaker 2: You know, City has had a milestone moment in the
Speaker 2: financial services industry with having Jane Fraser as the first
Speaker 2: female CEO of Wall Street Bank. You know that change
Speaker 2: in that culture, you know, has brought with it representation
Speaker 2: and progress for all marginalized groups and voices. Within our organization,
Speaker 2: we're actively talking about the conversation about representation. You know,
Speaker 2: in terms of LGBTQ plus people, we have a very
Speaker 2: very firm target of three point five percent to reflect
Speaker 2: the demographics within society. And in terms of role modeling,
Speaker 2: we now have very senior leaders on the trading floor
Speaker 2: here now more comfortable in coming out and being out
Speaker 2: in the workplace, which has historically been misogynistic chauvinistic in sexuality.
Speaker 3: It's something that I do take into consideration for everything. Really,
Speaker 3: I think the best you and I initiatives. Do you
Speaker 3: have an intellectual focus When we look at discrimination, we
Speaker 3: have to consider the fact that characteristics can be complex
Speaker 3: and interconnected, so you can't separate my blackness from my
Speaker 3: gender and my sexuality. They're all interwined, and so I
Speaker 3: may experience homophobia differently to a white woman on account
Speaker 3: of my race, and I may experience racism differently to
Speaker 3: a black man on account of my gender. Having those
Speaker 3: things in mind is very, very important.
Speaker 1: We simply cannot continue to do things the way that
Speaker 1: has always been done because it isn't working anymore. Right. So,
Speaker 1: for the energy industry, it's more about shifting mindsets and
Speaker 1: getting people on board with the fact that change has
Speaker 1: to happen. I think there are in each company, in
Speaker 1: each business a group of dedicated allies, employees, resource networks
Speaker 1: that are on board with that. I really want to
Speaker 1: see that happen, But it's about how we bring the
Speaker 1: rest of the industry in and meet them where they're
Speaker 1: at so that we can change together.
Speaker 4: What I would love to see from corporates moving forward
Speaker 4: is for us to progress as some form of a
Speaker 4: dual track process, in that companies have an obligation to
Speaker 4: protect all of their employees, be it sexual orientation, gender,
Speaker 4: or other. But I think we also if we can
Speaker 4: need to try and use our platform to raise awareness
Speaker 4: outside of our immediate environments. There are a lot of
Speaker 4: people in the world who aren't in as fortunate positions
Speaker 4: as we are to have that voice, to be able
Speaker 4: to express how they feel and how they think, and
Speaker 4: actually for some the decision is being taken out of
Speaker 4: their hands and they don't have a say at all.
Speaker 4: So I would really like to see corporates progressing sort
Speaker 4: of outside of their immediate as well.
Speaker 2: I think that city has definitely used its platform and
Speaker 2: its authority to enact change for the betterment of the
Speaker 2: ADETQ plus community. The context of Northern Ireland where we
Speaker 2: have more than three thy five hundred colleagues said they
Speaker 2: did put their head above the parapet to really lead
Speaker 2: on the corporate campaign in the move towards marriage equality
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen, and certainly, you know, we're not afraid
Speaker 2: to stand up for our colleagues and the wider at
Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus community because at a very basic level it's
Speaker 2: the right thing to do.
Speaker 3: Just remember that Pride Month is just one month. We're
Speaker 3: all we LGBTQIA for the rest of the year, and
Speaker 3: I think allied with that is have pun intended having
Speaker 3: regular training sessions. I think one of training sessions on
Speaker 3: microaggressions and unconscious bias so useful, but you wouldn't expect
Speaker 3: to be able to run the London Marathon after an
Speaker 3: hour's training and more. You know, maybe having the training
Speaker 3: sessions alongside appraisals or onboarding or when people are going
Speaker 3: for promotions, are you much more effective and useful all
Speaker 3: year round.
Speaker 4: I think also making sure that Pride Month isn't viauted
Speaker 4: as a tick box exercise. It's a twelve month job
Speaker 4: effectively being a member of the LGBTQA community. I think
Speaker 4: it takes a lot of work alongside your day job
Speaker 4: to be involved in such initiatives. It can be tiring.
Speaker 4: It can be something that you get to the end
Speaker 4: of the day and you think, I really don't want
Speaker 4: to do this, but it's the right thing to do,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to do it because I believe in
Speaker 4: it passionately. So making sure that you can maintain that
Speaker 4: momentum is key.
Speaker 1: One of the things that we like to say at
Speaker 1: VP is Pride never stops. It's this huge month in June.
Speaker 1: We have it every year, but it is all year
Speaker 1: round for us. So I think the energy that comes
Speaker 1: out of June the people that we get on board,
Speaker 1: who start to understand a bit more about the community,
Speaker 1: about intersectionality, about big issues that the community are facing,
Speaker 1: lean into that after June and continue that work.
Speaker 2: Pride is a really important deal in the calendar, but
Speaker 2: it should be an opportunity to reflect on achievements throughout
Speaker 2: the year, but also looking towards what is next, and
Speaker 2: I think a healthy way to do that is to
Speaker 2: engage with the key sector organizations. You know, for ourselves,
Speaker 2: we're very part of the work we do as a
Speaker 2: financial services organization, but we're not always experts on LGBTQ
Speaker 2: plus issues, and that's where we partner and where we
Speaker 2: collaborate with key sector organizations to ensure that we are
Speaker 2: doing right by our community. And you know, in the
Speaker 2: current climate, I think it's really important to remember that
Speaker 2: the origins of Pride, the leaders in those days were black,
Speaker 2: trans women of color, and we need to be mindful
Speaker 2: and cognizant that, you know, those are groups who are
Speaker 2: being heavily targeted right now, and we need to ensure
Speaker 2: that we do our best to protect those groups from
Speaker 2: further persecution.