home | downloads | scene listings | non-scene listings | links | advertising details | contact us |
Click here for the graphic version of this page
Whilst the rainbow flag has yet to be seen above City Hall, Bradford Council last week definitely nailed its colours to the mast with the first ever major 'sexual orientation-themed event.'
Shout! caught up with members of the Council’s LGB Focus Group who decided to apply for funding for the production of a booklet which would concentrate on the rights of the Council’s lgb employees and customers.
Darren O’Sullivan, one of the group members told Shout! ‘We recognise the need to support people from our community as like many other groups in society we can be subjected to discrimination and prejudice. That said, we felt it important to stage an event which aims to raise awareness of the whole workforce rather than being solely for members of the lgb community.’
Both the booklet and this afternoon’s sequence of talks and inputs were intended to provide information about the experiences of our community and how this experience can be improved through greater awareness and understanding.
The event was launched by Council Leader Chris Hopkins who spoke of the importance of an ‘all inclusive workforce’ which he believed reflected the city.
The event, staged at the newly named ‘Media Museum’, included group discussion work, seminars and input from several organisations examining harassment in the workplace. Many local groups were represented and provided information in the form of stalls including MESMAC, The Equity Centre and West Yorkshire Police, together with Unison, the Council’s Fostering and Adoption Unit and The West Yorkshire Pension Scheme.
As Chair of the LGB Focus Group, I said that I believed that the lgb community is different from other communities as often we are a somewhat invisible minority. Many of people choose to disclose their sexual orientation at work; as such there are no exact figures of the numbers of lgb employees or customers.
Recent legislation has tried to recognise our needs through the introduction of the Civil Partnerships Act which recognises formal relationships between people of the same sex. As a gay man who has worked for over twenty five years for Bradford council, this for me is a very proud day.
Without a doubt, the Council, as an employer, has worked extremely hard in order to raise the profile of lgb employees and customers: last year they became affiliated to Stonewall as a ‘Diversity Champion’ and took part in the Workplace Equality Audit to identify the top 100 employers for gay people in Britain.
Sadly, this year we didn’t get into their list of the top 100 but we continue to work with Stonewall to establish how we can improve our performance in the coming years. We can only try to raise our game, recognising that it’s our contribution towards advancing the Council’s Corporate Fairness and Inclusion Agenda.
Paul Hunt
Stories from the magazine this month:
Related pages:
Click here for the graphic version of this page
home | downloads | scene listings | non-scene listings | links | advertising details | contact us |
visitors since 1 Aug 03