📸: Manchester Pride
Happy new year! 🎉
Firstly, I am SO ashamed it's taken me this long to get my 💩together and publish this research. I only wish I'd done it sooner, as it is a reminder that our experiences at work are not fully understood or explored.
So you'll have guessed by now that this isn't a post about resolutions, getting a man or losing weight 🤗. But it is about one of the things we often give attention to in the new year aka our work, job or career. As I mentioned in a previous post, the importance of work cannot be underestimated for queer people of colour. It's coded into our values from our families who hope for us to achieve bigger and brighter things, yet it's also a vital resource, giving us access to connections and economic independence should we be rejected by our families and our communities for our sexuality.
Remember our survey?
So we carried out a survey in May last year to better understand the experiences of LGBTQ people of colour at work, and as a result, we've published our first ever research report as colourfull 🌈. And we're pretty fucking proud, because is not much out there by way of data in this area, or in general about the lived experiences for people like us. So we hope to change that through the power of insights that build deeper understanding and in turn enable organisations to do better for the queer people of colour that work for them.
What did we learn?
The high level findings indicated:
It's easier to be a queer person of colour in London than the rest of the UK
Ethnicity tends to be more of a concern than sexual orientation during the recruitment process
The majority of us engage in covering behaviours to some degree in order to assimilate
Queer people of colour are like unicorns; many of us did not believe others like us existed or were visible in our workplaces
We generally believe we have fair access to development, but not when it comes to being considered for promotion
As history tells us, women have suffered oppression. This is true for queer women of colour, who responded less favourably than men throughout. We must listen and learn from them.
Want the full report?
You can download a full copy of the research report here.
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the survey and shared their experiences with us - without them, there is no insight. Also, a shout out to Salma Haidrani who was a brilliant sounding board in this process.
Let us know if you have any questions, thoughts or feedback. And if we can be of any help!
💜💜💜