by Tess Marshall
I’m a naturally private person. It’s important to me to keep my work life and my personal life completely separate.
I maintain healthy boundaries around the distinction between being friendly with my lovely colleagues and being friends with them.
But the reason I’m writing this is that there’s a big difference between being naturally reserved, and needing to hide.
No need to hide
During Pride Month, we celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community.
At MacIntyre, I’ve never felt the need to hide my identity as a queer woman. We’re an organisation where difference is valued and celebrated, including differences around gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodiversity and many more.
Not always easy
I haven’t always found it so easy to be out at work in other jobs. I’ve been working for a lot of years now and have sometimes been met with prurient curiosity at best and discrimination at worst. Thankfully, times have changed, although there’s a way to go in some organisations.
Not only one thing
And it’s important to realise that none of us are only one thing. My sexuality is only one part of the strange old jig-saw which makes up who I am. I think many people in our community struggle with being seen as fully rounded human beings.
Keeping vigilant
During Pride month in the UK, I’ve been reflecting on how dire the situation is for LGBTQIA+ people in other parts of the world, including so many friends in the USA, where draconian new laws are being enacted in several states. We have to stay vigilant wherever we live, including here in the UK.
Free to be me at MacIntyre
But overall I feel very lucky that I am free to be me.
As part of MacIntyre’s Diversity Advisory Group, I’m well placed to see our senior leadership team’s determination to keep Equality, Diversity and Inclusion priorities central to everything we do. We haven’t always got it right; we won’t always get it right. But that’s part of the journey. And it’s one of the many reasons I really value working at MacIntyre.
