Top tips to be gay-friendly
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1. Don’t make assumptions about
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speaking to someone becaus
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3. Think it doesn’t matter? Try talk
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about your weekend
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without mentioning your fam
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friends. You’ll soon realise how isol
it can be to have to hide details from
your colleagues.
latest
4. Make sure you’re on top of the
’ll
legislation. As a service provider - you
law.
need to stay on the right side of the
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5. Value everyone’s differences. It
things
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enhances our services if
from another’s point of view.
LGBT news
County Council
makes list of top
20
gay-friendly
employers
Inside this issue we celebrate Leicestershire
County Council’s ranking in Britain’s top 20
gay-friendly employers.
Leicestershire County Council has been
named 20th in Stonewall’s list of the
most gay-friendly places to work in the
UK.
Stonewall has announced its top 100
employers for 2013, showcasing Britain’s
best employers for lesbian, gay and
bisexual staff.
This also highlights the effort of the LGBT
Workers’ Group in ensuring that gay,
lesbian and bisexual staff are supported
and that diversity is celebrated.
Leicestershire County Council has climbed
the ranking for the fourth consecutive
year, moving from 166th in 2009, to its
current top 20 position. It’s now the top
county council, and just five places behind
Brighton and Hove City Council.
Highlights over the past year include the
‘Pants and Politics’ event at Snibston
to mark LGBT History Month as well as
a new programme which encourages
‘straight allies’ to champion equality issues
throughout the council.
The Stonewall accolade recognises how
the council values its diverse employees
and delivers services which recognise the
needs of all its residents.
Staff are reminded that the next LGBT
Workers’ Group meeting will take place on
27th February from 12pm - 2pm. It will
start with an informal lunch provided by
group members, followed by the
meeting agenda.
TOP 100 EMPLOYERS 2013
2
LGBT Spring 2013
Flags raised for
LGBT History Month
On February 1, Leicestershire Police, Leicester City Council and
Leicestershire County Council flew rainbow flags to mark the first day
of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans (LGBT) History Month, the national
event which celebrates the lives and achievements of LGBT people.
“As national LGBT strategic policing
lead, I was pleased to see ten police
forces, including Leicestershire
Police, featured in the Stonewall
100 Index of gay-friendly employers
in January 2013. LGBT History
Month is a great opportunity to
become aware of the challenges
LGBT people face everyday, and to
recognise their valuable contribution
to wider society”.
Representatives from the City and County Councils, and
Leicestershire Police raising the rainbow flag to celebrate LGBT
History month. Photo used by kind permission of the Leicester
Mercury
Assistant Chief Constable Steph Morgan is the
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead for
LGBT issues and is responsible for driving positive
change at a strategic level within policing.
Commenting on the partners’ flying of the rainbow
flag, ACC Morgan said: “Flying the rainbow
flag together in this way is a symbol of our joint
commitment to the LGBT community locally and
is part of ongoing work with our local authority
partners to create a just and fair society for all.
Nick Rushton, leader of
Leicestershire County Council, said
“We are delighted to be joining
our colleagues at Leicestershire
Police and Leicester City Council in
raising the flag to mark the start of
LGBT History month.
“LGBT people have overcome
huge challenges throughout
history, both here in Leicestershire,
and across the world. This month is about
remembering the contribution of those people and
celebrating the diversity of our city and county”.
Asst city mayor Cllr Manjula Sood, the city council’s
executive lead on equalities said: “The city council
is committed to celebrating Leicester’s diversity,
and flying the rainbow flags is a very visual way
of acknowledging LGBT history month and the
contribution made by the LGBT community to our
city”.
For more information on
LGBT History Month visit
www.lgbthistorymonth.
org.uk
LGBT Spring 2013
Straight
Talk
We ask Mark Randle (pictured) a Learning
and Development Advisor in Corporate
Resources for his thoughts on why it’s important
to be a gay friendly organisation.
Tell us a bit more about your role at the County Council,
and how equality and diversity is part of your ‘day job’?
The area that I’m responsible for is around leadership and
management development. This includes not only delivering training
courses but advice, development, bespoke work and embedding
policies and strategies, such as the new ‘Leadership behaviours’ for
managers.
These ‘Leadership behaviours’ help managers achieve high quality
outcomes for the people of Leicestershire and create honest open
relationships with staff and partners.
If managers don’t understand who their audience are - including the
many LGBT residents across the county - how can they provide a
high quality service? If I was gay, I’d want to use services that I knew
cared about people like me.
Why do you think that’s important, that staff feel able
to come out?
We (as an organisation) will get the best out of people if they can be
themselves at work. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination for me as a
straight man to imagine what life must be like if you have to keep
your personal life a secret at work. Sexual orientation isn’t visible, so
LGBT people have to build up the courage to come out every time
they change jobs or meet new people.
I worked for the police in the 90s and although things have moved
on, we’re still having the same conversations, and people are still
struggling to come out, when it just shouldn’t be an issue. If we’re
a gay friendly organisation - and not just that we’re 20th in the
Stonewall Index, but that we feel like a gay friendly organisation then that’s got to be better for everyone, residents and staff.
Why did you join the council’s ‘Straight Allies’
programme?
I think that if a straight person stands up and says we should be
gay friendly and the reasons why, it speaks volumes. It shouldn’t
be that way, but it does have more impact.
We’ve recently run a pilot where we go along to team meetings
and talk to teams about being gay friendly. Language is
something that comes up a lot - teams asking what is
offensive. Having one of us there rather than an LGBT
person means that it’s slightly more relaxed and
that people can ask those questions, and not
worry about being offensive.
What is a
straight ally?
Creating a gay-friendly workplace
is down to all of us, and the
Leicestershire County Council
Straight Allies are supporting the
LGBT workers group to help deliver
on this.
What does a straight ally do?
It may be activities you take
for granted, like challenging
homophobic banter, highlighting
LGBT issues and speaking out about
processes that may inadvertently
discriminate customers or staff that
are LGBT.
We want people to think about their
actions and the impact these have
on their LGBT colleagues.
The Straight Allies also offer
workshop sessions to consider
LGBT issues. Ideally delivered
through a team meeting, it provides
an opportunity for your team to
explore these issues and challenge
any preconceived ideas together
and discuss how your team can
help LCC be a more gay-friendly
organisation.
If you’d like to request a team
workshop session or find out more
about becoming a straight ally,
please contact Sophie Davies, Mark
Randle or Kim Frith.
3
4
LGBT Spring 2013
Lunchtime meeting with the
LGBT Workers Group
The next LGBT Workers group meeting will take place
at lunchtime on Wednesday February 27th
The group would particularly like to
welcome LGBT staff who may not
have felt able to attend the meeting at
the group’s usual meeting time.
The first half hour will be an informal
buffet lunch at 12pm (provided by
members of the group) followed by a
meeting, to finish at 2pm.
Andrew Murphy, LGBT Workers
Group Chair, said: “We’d love to see
some new faces on the 27th, so I’d
encourage any LGBT staff that are
able to come along and find out more
about the work of the group. Being
part of the LGBT workers group is a
great opportunity to help shape our
services for other staff and for residents
of Leicestershire”.
The meeting will be on 27th February,
12 - 2pm in room 205 on the second
floor at County Hall’s Pen Lloyd
building - no need to book, just turn
up. If you’d like to find out more,
or are unable to attend but want to
get involved, please contact Andrew
Murphy on 0116 305 4060.
Stop and Tell campaign
This year’s ‘Stop and tell’ campaign ran from February 18th
- 24th across Leicestershire, encouraging people to report
hate crime. The focus this year has been on LGB&T people.
The campaign has been co-ordinated
by Leicestershire County Council’s Hate
Incident Monitoring Project (HIMP) in
partnership with Leicester LGBT Centre,
the district and borough councils,
Leicestershire Police and Leicestershire
Partnership NHS trust.
co-ordinator) and a harrowing account
by Giovanna del Nord of her experiences
as a victim of transphobic hate incidents.
The flagship event of the week long
campaign was a conference at County
Hall on Friday 22nd for partners and
LCC staff.
To report a hate incident please contact
0116 305 8263 or fill in a form on
www.leics.gov.uk/reporthate. In an
emergency, call 999.
Speakers at the event included Christina
Marriott (NHS), ACC Steph Morgan
(Leicestershire Police), Stevie Jade-Hardy
(University of Leicester), Sally Penney
(Leicestershire County Council HIMP
A DVD resource for schools, created by
the HIMP with Leicester LGBT Centre’s
youth group was also ‘premiered’.
@LeicsCountyHall - “There’s
a big gap between recorded &
actual levels of hate crime” Stevie-Jade Hardy, University
of Leics @HateCrime_Leics
project #StopTell2013
CALL FOR LGBT
ADOPTERS AND
FOSTER CARERS
Event for potential
adopters and foster carers
Don’t miss our open evening at
Leicester’s LGBT Centre. We’ll be
welcoming all those interested in
adoption or fostering. Our team will
be able to answer your questions and
provide detail about the process.
Monday 4th March 2013
Families come in lots of different shapes and sizes.
Gay men, lesbians and bisexual people have been
parents for a long time, but in recent years wider
attitudes have changed towards gay mums and dads.
A recent Stonewall study into the attitudes of young
people revealed that rather than being viewed negatively,
children of gay parents are seen as cool and special.
6 - 8 pm
LGBT Centre
15 Wellington Street
Leicester
LE1 6HH
For more information contact:
0116 305 0505
When it comes to building a family, some lesbian,
gay and bisexual parents have children from previous
heterosexual relationships. Some have children from
a donor or surrogate. Others consider adoption and
fostering to make their families complete. In Leicestershire, all sorts of people are encouraged to
consider adoption or fostering. It doesn’t matter whether
you are married, cohabitating, single, gay or straight.
Those who are interested are asked to have plenty of
patience, humour, time, energy and a determination to
give a young person the sort of support that will really
make a difference to their life.
If you would like to get
involved in the LGBT Workers’
Group, or would like to access
support, please contact us:
To find out more about adoption or becoming a foster
carer visit: www.spaceforachild.com.
You can access advice about LGBT parenting, as well
as information for schools on how to tackle bullying and
homophobia at: www.stonewall.org.uk.
Andrew Murphy 0116 305 4060
andrew.murphy@leics.gov.uk
www.leics.gov.uk/lgbtgroup
Or use our confidential email address: lgbt@leics.gov.uk