The company I work for is putting more effort into Pride 2025 than previous years. it usually does something low-key. This years is also described as “low key”, but there are a lot more workstreams – as far as I am aware, this is the first time that they have actually asked any of the LGBTQ+ people in the company to contribute!

There was a kick-off meeting; ten people on the call in total – five of whom I had not spoken to before. They went “around the room” (it was an online meeting) and everyone gave introductions. Nobody gave any information about their gender or sexuality until it got to me – I felt so anxious! I have come out as gay more times than I can remember (I initially came out way back in 1995); coming out to as non-binary is fairly recent. I said that I had done that in 2023 and had “identity correcting surgery” in 2024. I wasn’t yet sure of these people and didn’t feel completely comfortable revealing which parts of myself I’d had removed – these are colleagues and telling them that I’d had my scrotum and its contents removed just didn’t feel suitable for the office.

They’d already had a load of ideas, including having a Pride intranet page to host various content, such as personal stories, music and film lists, local Pride events, backgrounds for Teams, and pride art.

One suggestion was to find some short videos on “Pride Heroes”, Alan Turing came up first – I think I should suggest a few more less well-known names – maybe some true activists and explain why these people are important for everybody’s personal freedoms (I’m wondering about finding some trans people who are also technical pioneers, but also Peter Tatchell as an activist example).

Somebody asked about neurodivergence as an example of another community that is persecuted and maybe have a month dedicated to that group – I liked that idea, except that World Neurodivergent day is the 16th June … ie slap-bang in the middle of Pride month! I said that perhaps Pride, in its purest form, is simply Pride in our shared humanity and of our differences.

More LGBTQ+ (especially non-binary) people are neurodivergent than in the rest of the general population, which was something another ND person on the call seconded. I talked about a post on my blog where I explored ND, non-binary, and something else (Kink! but that didn’t feel comfortable to mention in a work meeting).

The ND person on the call was also non-binary. Sadly, I didn’t manage to establish what that meant for her – because what it means for each of us can be a little different. After I shared a little about my life experience, she shared that she had gone to a Catholic school and that coming out as there was particularly difficult.

I rattled on about Margaret Mead and Judith Butler as two people instrumental in understanding the difference between sex and gender. I had to stop myself from preaching!

I talked about the importance of visibility and explained why I have rainbows on me all the time (I have Pride tattoos): they each say that I am an out and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. I am not afraid. You don’t need to be afraid: you have a friend in me.

The importance of “lived experience” was stressed and, as a result, I seem to have ended up volunteering to write a bit about my two coming out experiences!

Each of the others on the call also had at least one takeaway action.

We have also realised that as a business involved in creating software for the Criminal Justice System, particularly for managing prisons and probation, and that is itself used by prisoners, that we ought to try to connect pride to the business: there are LGBTQ+ prisoners and there are charities involved in their support, perhaps the business could look to support one of those charities?

I felt a degree of discomfort discussing my LGBTQ+ identity with work colleagues.

We’ll meet up again in two weeks’ time.

This is good stuff though – it strengthens the community.