Civil Service LGBT+ Network

Chairs Eye View June

2025-06-06T15:43:54+00:00

Chairs Eye View

June Reflections

As we welcome June, we step into Pride Month, a time of celebration, reflection, and connection. Across the Civil Service, this month offers us a chance to reaffirm our shared commitment to inclusion, respect, and fairness for all, in line with the values that underpin our work: integrity, honesty, objectivity, and impartiality.

Pride is more than a moment in the calendar. It is a living, breathing reminder of the strength found in diversity, the power of community, and the importance of visibility. It is also a time to acknowledge the journeys, both personal and collective, that have brought us to where we are today.

This year, the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and departmental networks across the UK have curated a vibrant and varied programme of events that reflect the richness of our community. From learning sessions to creative workshops, from community cafés to Pride parades, there is something for everyone, whether you’re a long-standing ally or just beginning your journey with us.

Celebrating Through Connection

One of the most powerful aspects of Pride is the opportunity it provides to connect. This month, colleagues are coming together in cities and towns across the UK to share stories, build friendships, and celebrate who we are.

Social events are taking place in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle, and Darlington, offering informal spaces for colleagues to meet, chat, and unwind. Whether it’s the Pre Pride Picnic in Wales, or the Sparkle Weekend Social in Manchester, these gatherings remind us that community is built not just through policy, but through presence.

For those who prefer quieter moments of connection, the Monthly Parents, Carers and Partners Coffee Chat offers a virtual space for support and solidarity, while the Virtual Book Club provides a chance to explore LGBT+ literature and share reflections.

Marching with Pride

This year, Civil Service LGBT+ Network are proudly marching in Pride parades across the UK, from Blackpool to Portsmouth, York to Edinburgh, and Portsmouth to Sunderland. These events are more than colourful celebrations; they are public affirmations of our values and our visibility. We’ll also be marching in Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and London. There is still time to sign up to march with your Civil Service LGBT+ Network this Pride season. You can register your interest via the events section of our website.

Being present at Pride parades is a powerful act. It signals to our colleagues, our communities, and ourselves that we belong, that we are seen, supported, and celebrated. It also reflects the Civil Service’s ongoing commitment to creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

Learning, Listening, and Growing

Pride is also a time for learning. This year’s programme includes a range of thought-provoking events designed to deepen understanding and spark conversation.

Highlights include:

SPECTRUM, Home Office’s LGBT+ Network is hosting a variety of events. Some highlights include:

“The Power of Community – Pride and the NB/Trans Community”, exploring the intersection of identity and belonging.

“Local Pride – Unsung Heroes”, shining a light on the contributions of those who often go unrecognised.

“A History of Pride as Protest”, reminding us of the roots of the movement and the resilience that continues to drive it forward.

“Civil Service Responding to Social Change” is a combined event hosted by Natural Resources Wales, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Welsh Government.

Creativity and Culture

Pride is also a celebration of culture and creativity. This year’s calendar includes a Queer Crafting Event in Wales, a Creative Workshop, and a special event titled “The Proud History of Eurovision” a joyful nod to the role of music and performance in LGBT+ expression.

These events remind us that Pride is not just about policy or protest, it’s also about joy, art, and the freedom to express ourselves fully.

Looking Ahead

As we look to the future, we do so with hope and determination. Pride Month is a time to celebrate how far we’ve come, but also to acknowledge the work that remains. While we continue to make progress, we know that for many in our community, the path is not always easy.

In subtle ways, we are reminded that visibility still matters. That inclusion is not a given, but a practice. And that our values, when lived out with empathy and courage, can help shape a Civil Service that truly reflects the society it serves.

A Personal Note

To everyone who has organised, attended, or supported a Pride event this month, thank you. Your energy, creativity, and commitment are what make this community so special.

To those who may be watching from the sidelines, unsure of where they fit in, know that there is space for you here. Pride is for everyone. And whether you join a parade, attend a talk, or simply take a moment to reflect, your presence matters.

As we move into July, we will carry the spirit of Pride with us, not just as a celebration, but as a commitment. A commitment to each other, to our values, and to the kind of workplace, and world, we want to build.

BUSINESSiQ Award Update

2025-04-29T15:39:54+00:00

The Northern Echo’s third BUSINESSiQ magazine awards were held on April 11th and exceeded everyone’s expectations with a glittering ceremony at Wynyard Hall where more than 250 of the region’s most influential business people celebrated innovation, resilience, and community spirit throughout the North East.

Unfortunately, our representative, Sebastian Moore, Business Relationship Manager at HM Treasury and DEC Pride Network chair was unsuccessful in the Diversity & Inclusion Award. Special guests were a bit thin on the ground this year apart from John McCabe DL the chief executive of Northern Chamber of Commerce who you can see in the picture on the left with Seb in the centre.

Seb was narrowly beaten by the North East Autism Society who are a huge organisation and run 60 sites from Northumberland to Teesside, including four schools, a college, a vocational training farm, employment services, short breaks lodges, residential and supported living homes, adult day services, and family support.

To give a further flavour of the high level of competition other award winners included Middlesbrough College who took home the Employee Health and Wellbeing Award. South West Durham Training secured the Training and Skills Award, the Community Impact Award, went to Dogger Bank Wind Farm, and in the creative sphere, renowned artist Lucy Pittaway who has many galleries in our region was named Creative Business of the Year.

Against such competition it was a significant achievement for Seb just to make the shortlist, so well done to him for getting that far. Our loss is Autism’s gain, and we wish him good luck at future awards.

Pride 2025 – The Season Is Almost Here

2025-04-14T15:48:05+00:00

Pride 2025 is almost here and CS LGBT+ Network has lots to offer all over the UK!

Our season kicks off earlier than ever this year with Birmingham Pride! We are all over the UK too including Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, Doncaster and many more. We still have a couple of new prides being added - Still to go live this week is South Lanarkshire and Bute.

Each parade has its own sign up link in the event page for the parades. All events and prides can be found on the events page - Events.

Our pride parades are run by our wonderful local organisers, if you sign up and can no longer attend, please do let them know. A list of your Local Organisers can be found on the CS LGBT+ Network Team page.

Please sign up to parades you are planning to attend, whether that in your local area or afar, our team will make sure you have a wonderful time. Most are the parades are not balloted, Manchester and London are though, the team will draw the ballots in plenty of time for plans.

Lets make Pride 2025 a brilliant and unforgettable season! Happy Pride!

The Northern Echo BUSINESSiQ Award Finalist

2025-03-25T14:15:15+00:00

Congratulations are in order to Sebastian Moore, Business Relationship Manager at HM Treasury and Darlington Economic Campus (DEC), who has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Diversity & Inclusion Award at the prestigious Northern Echo BUSINESSiQ magazine awards to be held on 11th April at one of the most prestige locations in the North East - Wynyard Hall.

As a care leaver, Sebastian has uplifted employment opportunities through the Care Leaver Internship Scheme with outreach and mentorship spanning multiple departments, while establishing and Co-Chairing the XGov Care Leavers Network to support care-experienced staff across government.

As DEC Pride Network chair, he aligned engagement strategies with the wider regional Civil Service LGBT+ Network, doubling membership in 2024, organised inclusive allyship training sessions, and spearheaded a change to introduce pronoun visibility in IT systems, enhancing inclusivity. Sebastian’s impactful network leadership in DEC and beyond sets a high standard for diversity and inclusion in the public sector.

The awards shine a light on all the businesses making the North East region an amazing success story, the main sponsor will be Amazon and it will be unlike any other awards event the North East has ever seen.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for Sebastian.

Allies Event at the DEC

2025-03-25T10:57:45+00:00

To celebrate LGBT+ history month February 19th saw a successful and extremely engaging Allies training day hosted by the DEC Pride Network in conjunction with the CSLGBT+ Network at the Darlington Economic Campus (DEC), featuring a coffee morning and two impactful workshops. The guest speaker was the co-chair of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) LGBT+ Network Thomas Edwards who delivered an outstanding presentation to a hybrid audience – both in person and online with over 200 participants joining the afternoon session.

Tom broke down key LGBTQ+ terms, explored the principles and history of allyship and shared practical advice on supporting colleagues, especially those coming out. He covered best practices for using inclusive language, challenging discrimination – whether by calling out or calling in and kept us captivated with interactive scenarios. He concluded with simple powerful ways allies can make a difference: supporting networks, attending events, wearing rainbow lanyards and respecting pronouns.

The event left us with a deeper appreciation of allyship and our role in reducing the discrimination LGBT+ individuals face on a regular basis. We capped off the day with an after work social at the Juniper Tree in Darlington, hopeful that we’ve gained a few more allies and friends along the way.

Pride 2025 – Applications Open

2025-03-05T07:26:51+00:00

Registrations Are Open

Registrations for our pride offering for Pride 2025 are open! With LGBT+ History Month over our attention turns to Pride. We are parading and attending more locations that in previous years, we do hope that you support us at Pride 2025. For details of the offering please check out the page - Pride 2025.

Please spread the word and make this year more successful than ever. Parading as one Civil Service is amazing, creating unity, a sense of belonging and security for our groups is brilliant and we look forward to seeing you at a parade, or parades, this year.

Our registrations have changed a little this year, requesting a registration form per pride, this has been done following a period of reflection on feedback from 2024. We are hoping that this will reduce the number of no shows at prides as people will sign up to what they are hoping to come to.

If you register for a pride and can no longer make it, please do reach out to your Local Organiser for the region and let them know, this is really helpful for managing numbers, health and safety on the day.

Additional Parades

There are a small number of parades that the Network are intending to attend, these have not been published on the website yet as dates are yet to be confirmed.

Change in Dates

The pride parades are on the website where we know, or have best estimate of, the date. In the unfortunate event that a date changes the website will be updated and Local Organisers will reach out to those that have registered.

Balloted Prides

This year there are 2 balloted prides, Manchester and London. Numbers are restricted by the organisations but we are doing our best to maximise numbers so that we have as big a presence as possible. Whilst ballots are not universally popular, they remain the fairest way to allocate slots. The ballots are randomly allocated for both parades.

Once the ballot is drawn the Local Organiser fronting that parade will be in touch to confirm attendance, if attendance is not reconfirmed this place will be offered to someone on the reserve list. Local Organisers will do their upmost to ensure that parade entries are full. It is highly likely there will be a number of no shows, you Local Organiser may inform you to meet at a certain point to chance grabbing one of those slots.

The ballots will take place on;

London Pride - 15 May 2025
Manchester Pride - 9 July 2025

Final Registration Deadlines

Final registration deadlines are the Wednesday the week before the parade is due to take place, this is to allow the Pride team to ensure the correct t-shirts are with the correct people. If you would like to attend still please do send an email to the Local Organiser and ask for details or the central pride team at pride2025@civilservice.lgbt.

Sustainability

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network will be supplying their fetching pink t-shirts again, these are the same colour and design as last year. If you have a t-shirt from previous years please do reuse this. With our new sign up process if the parade you are planning on attending is not the first one you are this season then please retain your t-shirt and reuse it. This helps with both sustainability of the Network and its finances.

Some parades do not allow certain items, anything that we are aware of will be communicated from your Local Organisers. For instance, London does not allow stickers, others want to ensure that there is no , or less, single use plastic.

Conduct

It is always worth remembering that whilst you are in your Civil Service t-shirt, at muster points, on the parade, post parade etc, you are representing the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and that the Civil Service Code applies. Your Local Organiser are there to ensure things are well organised and that we can parade in the event you are at and in future events. Parading with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network can occasionally look a little different from parading with, say, a big corporate company. Any rules that the Network or Local Organisers ask you to follow are for the safety and security of you, as Civil Servants and the Network. Please do follow direction from the Local Organisers.

Chair’s Eye View - February 2025

2025-02-12T18:34:06+00:00

LGBT+ History Month was founded in 2005 by Schools Out, following the repeal of section 28. This February, its 20 years since we first started celebrating LGBT+ History Month. It is an opportunity to celebrate and highlight all the incredible things LGBT+ people, in all our diversity, have achieved throughout history in all areas of life.

The theme this year is Activism and Social Change. Throughout history, LGBT+ people have been activists and helped shape and create societal change, advancing society for everyone using many different approaches to activism.

Throughout LGBT+ History Month, there are a variety of events that colleagues can attend, from lunch and learns, coffee mornings, allyship workshops, and walking tours across the UK. You can catch up with all our latest events on the events section of our website.

It’s important we continue to ensure our network thrives. We’re really focusing on making sure there are CS LGBT+ spaces across all parts of the UK. There is currently a focus on North Wales, where a small focus group of colleagues from various departments discuss and plan how we can bring and plan for a Civil Service LGBT+ presence in North Wales. To get involved with our North Wales project, or you would like to know more information, please contact NorthWales@civilservice.lgbt. Other target areas include East of England, Scottish Highlands and Islands. If you want to get involved, please reach out to Chairs@civilservice.lgbt.

If you haven’t already caught our news article regarding Pride 2025, it has been confirmed that we will again be attending Pride parades across the United Kingdom, to celebrate the Civil Service as an inclusive employer for LGBT+ people. If you think you may be able to support Ross and the network of Local Organisers that pull pride off every year, please reach out using Pride2025@civilservice.lgbt.

Our network continues to grow, and changes happen. Due to work commitments, Claire and Anna have stood down from their roles as Vice Chairs. Claire played a vital role in progressing inclusion within the network for our LGBT+ ethnic minority siblings but also held discussions around career progression for all LGBT+ Civil Servants. Anna will continue within the network but will focus on walking groups and virtual coffee mornings, for LGBT+ women.

Faz will be taking over as Vice Chair continuing to focus on inclusion for our LGBT+ siblings from ethnic minority groups, and faith backgrounds. To get in touch with Faz, please use Vice-Chair-Ethnic-Minority-Inclusion@civilservice.lgbt.

Are you a parent, carer or guardian to LGBT+ young people? Are you the partner of a trans person but don’t identify as an LGBT+ person yourself, we have the perfect space for you. Led by parents/guardians of LGBT+ young people and partners of trans people. This isn’t to be confused with an Allies space, we value all our Allies, but this group will work closely with Ellie to progress both this space and our Allies space in a positive collaborative way. To contact either group, please use Allies@civilservice.lgbt for Ellie, or Parents-Carers-Partners@civilservice.lgbt to contact Lynda, Tracey, Elsa and Stephen “Leggy”.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of LGBT+ History Month and manage to take part in some of the events or socials. All our most up to date information is published on the events section of our website, and don’t forget to register for the Pride parades you’d like to march in!

Final updates from us, Civil Service LGBT+ Mentoring will be back for 2025, although we’re working with a launch date later in the year currently.

Any questions for Saorsa or I, please direct to Chairs@civilservice.lgbt

Jefferson Welsby

Pride 2025 Registrations are Opening

2025-02-10T15:20:14+00:00

Registrations are opening for Pride 2025. Based on feedback from attendees and Local Organisers things look a little different this year, we are asking people to register via one individual form per parade/event.

You can now register for the below parades;

24/05/2025 - Birmingham
24/05/2025 - Durham
07/06/2025 - Portsmouth
07/06/2025 - York
21/06/2025 - Edinburgh
21/06/2025 - Salford Pink Picnic [Social]
21/06/2025 - Cardiff
28/06/2025 - Sunderland
05/07/2025 - Hartlepool
05/07/2025 - London [Balloted]
06/07/2025 - Cleveland (Saltburn) [Social]
12/07/2025 - Bristol
19/07/2025 - Glasgow
19/07/2025 - Newcastle
20/07/2025 - Leeds
26/07/2025 - Belfast
26/07/2025 - Liverpool
26/07/2025 - Nottingham
26/07/2025 - Stockton-on-Tees
09/08/2025 - Darlington
09/08/2025 - Doncaster
23/08/2025 - Manchester [Balloted]
30/08/2025 - Didsbury [Social]
27/09/2025 - Middlesbrough

Civil Service LGBT+ Network Local Organisers are also planning on attending;

Sheffield

Date confirmation of these parades are pending and will be published along with registration forms in due course.

When you register for pride events please make a note of these in your calendar and please do inform your Local Organiser, or the central mailbox if your plans change.

I hope you have a fantastic pride with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network for 2025.

Pride 2025 Update

2025-01-16T07:45:22+00:00

As we enter into the New Year questions are starting to be asked on where the Civil Service LGBT+ Network will be in 2025. We are hoping to build on the experience and scope of Pride 2024, offering more pride parades and social occasions at a variety of pride events. When we are ready to launch there will be a sign up form for all events.

Events are being uploaded onto the website when there is confirmation of dates and local organiser commitment. Registration will open when our plans are in place.

Some of the parades will be balloted as numbers are restricted; last year Manchester and London were balloted prides. We know that this process does not please everyone, but it has appeared to have been the fairest way to allocate spaces. Reserve lists will be run for balloted prides. Ballots for prides will be done 6 and a half weeks in advance of the parade.

It is important for Local Organisers to understand if you can no longer make a certain pride event, please ensure you tell them via email prior to the event. This will ensure we have the correct stock of Civil Service LGBT+ t-shirts and will mean that Local Organisers are not spending time looking for people that are not turning up.

To ensure that we are as sustainable and economic as possible we will be using the same colour and design of t-shirts and banners as last year.

All parades and events will be added to the website events page, as well as to the Pride 2025 Topics page. Until timings, meeting location and other finer details are confirmed all events will show as starting at 1200, when details are confirmed this will be explicitly noted on each event.

If your local Civil Service Department are organising something for pride and would like it advertised wider then please do get in touch with the pride co-ordinator on pride2025@civilservice.lgbt or via your Local Organiser.

Chair’s Eye View - January 2025

2024-12-30T10:21:03+00:00

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”

“In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right”

Rev Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968)

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984)

The 20th January marks the 30th Martin Luther King Jnr day, held as a public holiday in the USA. A well-known civil rights campaigner, assassinated in 1968, his message of principled, non-violent opposition to injustice resonates around the world: especially in times of rising hate. His message, to me, was one of love and understanding to combat the hatred and intolerance of difference.

The 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day. The poem above is the official rendering used by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity set up by the British Government, but Pastor Niemoller was known change the groups mentioned depending upon his audience and purpose. Holocaust Memorial Day remembers all those lost to dehumanising hate and genocide around the world.

And 19th January is World Religion Day. Both Rev Martin Luther King Jnr and Pastor Martin Niemoller were men of devout faith who spoke out against hate, intolerance, and indifference. I know of no world religion that teaches hatred and intolerance towards anyone. Most teach to love and understand, to accept and respect difference. They call upon their faithful to stand up for the rights of those less fortunate than oneself: to share good fortune and fight against poverty and injustice wherever it is found.

As we celebrate the New Year, and some of us make our new year resolutions, it seems to me that these three dates, all falling at the start of the year as they do, call on all of us to reach out our arms to our fellow human beings in order to lift them up regardless of any differences we may have. To look with fresh eyes at the world and recommit to eradicating poverty, injustice, and intolerance. And to stand together and speak out against violence, hatred and dehumanisation.

By standing together in our common humanity, we can make this world a better place for all. And that is my New Years Resolution, what’s yours?

Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale

The Free to be Me Exhibition at Preston Park Museum Stockton-on-Tees

2024-12-23T14:35:20+00:00

The Free to be Me Exhibition at Preston Park Museum Stockton-on-Tees

December 20th 2024 heralded the grand opening of the Free to be Me LGBT+ exhibition at Preston Park, a collaboration between Ellie Lowther’s Free To Be Me Project, Age UK Teesside, The Civil Service LGBT+ Network and Tees Valley Museums Service who put the exhibition together.

The concept originated from a visit made by members of the Free To Be Me LGBT+ over 50’s group, many of whom are transgender, to Preston Hall Museum at Preston Park and after seeing the community space where temporary exhibitions were held by the local community, suggested an exhibition of the LGBT+ history of the area.

This resulted in various meetings between Tees Valley Museums staff and the over 50’s group with the concept being that the group themselves would decide what was to be exhibited and the Museum would then facilitate it.

This culminated in the exhibits we can see today which include:

Martin’s Civil Service LGBT+ Network/a:gender t-shirt worn at local events including Stockton-on-Tees Pride supported by the network, this t-shirts helps maintain our visible support for LGBT+ members of the Civil Service..

The Free To Be Me Diversity Den sign – from the wall of the Diversity Den which is situated on Yarm Road Stockton-on-Tees and serves as a welcoming community safe space that promotes inclusivity and is the home of the Free To Be Me Elders group.

A Scrabble game which represents an important part of the group’s weekly meetings

A picture of Rick Hooton, Ellie Lowther and Steph Bowes, local LGBT+ advocates at Stocktons first Pride event in 2023, Steph runs the Hippie and the Witch an eclectic and inclusive retail offer and Rick runs Free 2 Be U drag cabaret evenings in local pubs and clubs around the Stockton-on-Tees area and of course Ellie who has created and continues to be involved in many community initiatives over the last decade.

A picture of Ellie by performer and avant-garde cabaret artist, singer, actor, comedian and film director David Hoyle who pulled her from the audience at ARC Stockton and immortalised her on canvas. Ellies name is painted on the side and if viewed sideways it appears as 37713 which added together makes the number 21 which is personally significant to Ellie’s journey!. Hoyles work has often focused on themes in the LGBT+ community, attacking what he sees as dominant trends in “bourgeois Britain and the materialistic-hedonistic gay scene”.

A pair of size 9 heels showing how fashion is a huge part of a transgender woman’s identity as it can be difficult to find a fashionable pair of shoes that fit.

A framed cover of A Fantastic Woman film directed by Sebastian Leilo a transgender woman who faced discrimination after the sudden death of her partner, the screening of which was attended by Ellie and many other community members at Arc Stockton Arts centre. The picture is usually proudly displayed in the Den.

A photograph of Lesleigh Taylor and Billie and a poem by Lesleigh read at her funeral about hope and how it guides you on your journey to where you want to be and who you want to be, through the darkness of dysphoria, days of despair and mental health issues no one sees.

Lesleigh Taylor was a transgender Army veteran who died suddenly in the town in her friend’s arms after having a heart attack in the street. The 65-year-old who transitioned in 2016 was supported by Steph who knew her before transition and gave her lots of clothes and make up. She didn’t have the best family situation when she was younger but knew she wanted to be a girl from six years old. Her mother supported her but her father didn’t so she found different ways to hide it for years including going into the Army.

When her father passed away, she felt she could be her true self and became a part of the local community joining the Stockton Trans aware support group and a knitting group. She was well known in the town and I knew her when she used to sit on a bench outside of Aldi (which became known as Lesleigh’s bench) knitting, watching the world go and having a kind word to anyone who would sit next to and talk to her. She put up with a lot of discrimination, had threats and secret videos of her put on Facebook with derogatory comments, but she said that for every bad comment she had 100 good ones and if anybody has a problem it’s their problem not her problem.

The video – Masked. In 2017 Ellie delivered her Trans101 awareness sessions to more than 5000 national Citizen Service graduates around the Uk with many in the Tees Valley. She inspired Team 6 at Darlington to produce the video which won an award for the most innovative social action project of the year. In the display are masks created by the over 50’s group inspired by the video containing their own fears and what lies behind the masks we all wear every day.

SYSTEMIC inclusive choir poster (sing your song true equality matters inclusive choir) which meets weekly at the ARC Arts centre Stockton and performs at many local inclusive events and Prides in the local area.

Lastly a picture of the Free To Be Me wall mural which lies on the wall outside the ARC Arts Centre Stockton and serves as a welcome to all who visit. The Free to be me Project champions inclusion in Stockton and beyond with an ever growing range of community initiatives, it includes the over 50’s group and the SYSTEMIC choir and is based on the premise that is explained in Ellie’s quote “any of us can be bullied or discriminated against, until we are all truly free to be our authentic self we will never enjoy the safer more inclusive society that benefits us all”.

It is hoped the exhibition will raise the profile of the local LGBT+ community, create a greater understanding of the issues transgender people face, educate the public and reduce discrimination.

The exhibition runs from now until February at Preston Park and costs £5 entry which lasts for a year and after the exhibition closes the Free to be Me Project intends to work with the museum on many more exciting projects in the future.

Support Statement

2024-12-12T10:07:44+00:00

The CS LGBT+ Network notes the news yesterday that the Minister for Health intends to make permanent, pending further research, the ban on the use of puberty blockers in the care pathways for trans young people. We recognise that this may be destressing news for some colleagues who are parents, guardians, friends, family or loved ones of those affected by this news.

The CS LGBT+ Network has a Parents, Carers and Partners group of Vice Chairs, details of this group are on the ‘Team’ page. Furthermore where they exist in your area of the Civil Service, there are mental health first aiders and or access to PAM assist, or other employee assistance programmes. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your manager to understand what support is available in addition to the aforementioned places.

Vice Chair for Trans, Intersex and Non-Binary Inclusion

2024-12-06T15:54:34+00:00

I’m delighted to be writing to you all as the Civil Service LGBT Network’s new Vice-Chair for Trans, Intersex and Non-binary inclusion.

During the last CS LGBT Chair’s election, I was one of many gender-diverse Civil Servants pushing candidates to commit to this network doing more for our section of the community. Networks play a huge role in promoting diverse, inclusive environments where people can bring their whole selves to work and be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their background. Nobody deserves that more than trans, intersex and non-binary colleagues.

With this in mind, I could not be more excited to launch a programme of work from the CS LGBT Network to promote trans, intersex and non-binary inclusion. However, starting from a pretty blank piece of paper, I am acutely aware that we need the support of our gender diverse members and allies to help set the direction of this work, and the actions we as a network need to undertake if we want to deliver demonstrable, tangible and lasting outcomes for gender diverse Civil Servants.

To do this, the network will be undertaking 3 initial activities to set our programme of work, for which I need your help:

Bring together as many trans, intersex and non-binary colleagues and allies as possible to a kick-off call – This work will only be successful if it’s led by our network’s members. I am keen to hold an open discussion with as many of you as possible and invite you to all to a kick-off call on Thursday 19th December 3pm-4pm to chat about the work you believe the CS LGBT Network should be undertaking, and how we should deliver it. There will be no ongoing time commitment required beyond attending this call. However, we will be asking for volunteers to help form a working group as part of this programme.
Bring together local network leads on trans, intersex and non-binary inclusion into one forum – So many individual department networks are already doing amazing things for trans, intersex and non-binary inclusion. There is a lot of best practice that we’re not great at sharing between us, so for this programme of work to be a success, I’ll be looking to bring together gender diversity leads from individual networks to join a steering group where colleagues can share progress, best practice and help steer the work we’re doing.
Develop and publish a strategic action plan for this programme of work – We can’t deliver effective change without a plan. Over the coming months, I hope to engage with as many willing volunteers as possible to set the ambitions, priorities and areas of focus for this programme of work together. Again, the work we undertake will always be led and influenced by our members. Once this is set, the plan will be published on our website, with regular progress on our work provided to our members.

You can sign up to keep in touch with the work we’re doing, or to let me know you’d like to be more involved by sending a blank email here and then replying with a blank response to the ‘Join request’ email you will receive, just hit reply and then send. For more help with this check this link here. Please do get in touch with me via trans-non-binary-inclusion@civilservice.lgbt if you have any issues signing up to the mailing list.

I’m already looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible next Wednesday, but anyone has any questions in the meantime please don’t hesitate to get it touch!

Thanks!

Trixxy

Chair’s Eye View - December 2024

2024-11-29T12:47:58+00:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the second instalment of a Chairs Eye View. We’ll be highlighting the month ahead, sharing news, views and upcoming events.

Sunday is World AIDS Day which is observed annually on the 1st of December globally. It’s dedicated to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS, showing support for those living with HIV or AIDS, and remembering those who we’ve sadly lost from AIDS related illnesses, not just in the LGBT+ community, but beyond too.

In Northern Ireland, the Rainbow Project in Belfast have organised for the AIDS memorial quilt to visit Belfast. As a network we regularly organise informal networking and social events that colleagues across the Civil Service can join, to learn and meet new colleagues with similar interests.

Throughout December there will be a variety of events as we lead up to the festive period and New Year.

The CS LGBT+ Network, DTS and CGI are hosting a volunteering day in Salford (Monday 2nd December), where they’ll be planting trees in a local cemetery. This follows on from another volunteering day where network members volunteered to help clear up Sackville Gardens in Manchester’s Gay Village and litter picked on Formby beach.

There is still time to sign up to the above event. As the event in Belfast is ticketed, it is likely not possible to sign up at this stage, but we look forward to hearing about the experience from colleagues.

Our Local Organiser Network led by Ross has been as busy as ever organising a plethora of events for colleagues throughout the festive period. I’ve highlighted most locations below but keep an eye on the events page of our website for any others that may pop up.

Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham, London, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Southampton, Cardiff.

The London Film Club will be meeting in person again at the Prince Charles Cinema for a viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol, with pre and post socials. There is still time to sign up for this event on Tuesday 3rd December.

As well as the in-person socials there are several virtual events throughout December. The Planning Inspectorate’s Rainbow Network has organised a virtual event with representatives from the London Gay Men’s Chorus - Europe’s largest gay choir. Come along to hear their story, learn about their performances, charity and outreach work. We may even hear some music…

Please contact Jeanie or Sarah if you’re interested in joining this event on Thursday 5th of December.

Saorsa and I will be hosting an informal Coffee & Chat with a festive twist on the Tuesday 17th of December 2024 12:30-13:30. If you’d like to join us for this event you can sign up here. Please sign up using your work email.

As we move into 2025, we’ve commissioned several working groups to explore the possibility of a Civil Service LGBT+ Conference, and how we can further diversify our network and ensure it’s a welcoming space for all LGBT+ Civil Servants and Allies, we’ll update you all on progress in the New Year.

If you’re interested in supporting the network in some way, please reach out to Saorsa and I via chairs@civilservice.lgbt or Ross if you’re interested in supporting the Local Organisers network.

Saorsa and I would like to take this opportunity to thank our amazing Local Organisers, and Vice-Chairs for their continued dedication and hard work throughout the year. For those members we may not see over the next few weeks, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This time of year can also be stressful for many. Please reach out to us, your departmental network or wellbeing resources should you be feeling it this festive period. If you don’t know what they are then please speak to a representative from form your network or CS LGBT+.

All the best

Jefferson

Civil Service LGBT+ Network Book Club

2024-11-13T08:56:55+00:00

Starting a virtual LGBT+ book club was my New Year’s resolution for this year as I wanted to spend less time on social media, and it’s been a brilliant success. I wanted to reconnect with books and people more, so instead of endless scrolling especially on TikTok, I decided to start something that would encourage both learning and genuine conversation.

I was initially worried if anyone would sign up or how to keep everyone engaged. But it turns out, there were plenty of people who also wanted to escape the online “highlight reels” and dive into the deeper connections and breakaway from screens.

To choose our first book I decided to send out 5 choices and allow people to vote. The club isn’t just about books—it’s been a space for shared laughter, advice, and discussions that go way beyond the plot I’ve had some great theatre and DVD recommendations already from this network. The group has quickly become a highlight of every month, and each month, it feels more like meeting up with friends I even allow myself a glass of wine sometimes when joining the evening discussion group.

I’ve been amazed at how much better my attention span has been and found audiobooks a great way to relax and cut off from toxic media. Cutting down on social media was hard at first, but reading again has become such a positive habit that I find I hardly miss the constant scroll and likes. The book club in less than 12 months has over 150 members and continues to strive. If you want to join in check out Civil Service LGBT+ Network Virtual Book Club - December

If you want to learn more about book club, or wish to sign up, please email Ian at bookclub@civilservice.lgbt.

Chair’s Eye View - November 2024

2024-10-29T09:33:00+00:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the first of a regular monthly blog series where we will be looking forward to the month ahead, sharing some news and views, and highlighting upcoming events/dates.

On November 11th Planning Inspectorate are hosting a teams event to which all civil servant are invited:

PIINS Conversation with Hunter

On 11 November 2024 at 11:00

The event includes a Q&A as a small independent queer bookshop discusses what it is like existing in a smaller town, serving our community, and providing a positive LGBT+ space.

In addition to this there are notable calendar dates for the LGBT+ community in November for which many departmental networks will be putting on their own events.

13th-19th November is Trans Awareness Week, a positive look at the reality of trans life and raising awareness and understanding of the issues the community faces. This ends with November 20th which is Trans Day of Remembrance (TDoR) when we remember those Trans and non-binary individuals lost to violence in the previous 12 months. Year on year well over 95% of reported murders at TDoR are of Trans women, and of these the overwhelming majority are Trans women of colour.

The 13th is world kindness day, the 16th is the International Day of Tolerance, and the 18th marks the start of anti-bullying week. With reported hate incidents against the LGBT+ community ever on the rise, and increasing sharply in recent years, civil service initiatives to tackle workplace bullying and harassment are vitally important. We, as a community, should engage with them not just to report cases of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia, but to support all colleagues who may be subject to bullying and harassment for whatever reason.

The 25th marks international day against violence against women. On behalf of our network, I’d like to extend support and solidarity from our Trans women, non-binary feminine, bisexual, and lesbian members to our cisgender and heterosexual sisters in our common struggle to end violence against all women and girls.

Finally, some news about some changes to the Network and new groups you may want to promote or get involved with. Ellie has been appointed our new vice-chair for Allies. This new group will seek to involve our community allies and assist, though ally training, an understanding of what it means to be a proactive ally, not just to the LGBT+ community but to any group. As I am fond of saying, “Allyship is a verb not a noun” so I look forward to seeing this group step into action.

Likewise, Lynda, Tracey, Stephen and Elsa have become vice-chairs and are to expand their already successful Parent’s, Carer’s and Partners group across the Civil Service to give a voice to this important group of community support, and so that we can support PC&Ps in return.

Jefferson and I have spent our first year fulfilling our initial commitments to the network. Now we look forward to taking it forward with your support in a new and vibrant direction.

Moving forward together: always together.

Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale

Pride 2024 Feedback

2024-10-28T09:29:45+00:00

Foreword Notes

The Network was planning on attend 20 events, including all Nations capital cities. Approval was given for the Network to enter walking groups only. Manchester, for the 3rd year running, was the largest attended pride with approximately 170 people parading. Only one of the planned events was not attended due to safety concerns. We had approximately 700 people sign up to join the Network across the UK. This was sign up increase of approximately 8% from 2023.

Following pride we collected feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, so that we can understand the positives as well as gleam areas for improvements moving forward. It was great to see that, on the whole, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Feedback from last year helped shape how this year was managed, and based on the quantitative data it shows that there were improvements across the board for ease of sign up, communications and more.

Registration and Ballot

Ensuring we get registration and balloting correct is really important and not an easy feat. This year, again, members registered all through one form. Forms could be amended if there were any changes to planned prides, based on feedback though, this could have been better advertised, this is something we will make clearer for 2025.

There were 2 prides that were balloted this year, Manchester and London. Spaces are always over subscribed and limited, either because of funding, or from the parade teams themselves. Local Organisers worked hard to ensure all spaces were filled, and members were informed 6 weeks form the parade if they had been successful. We know that this process can be disappointing for some, and some have suggested not having a ballot at all, but managing expectations then would be far too tough.

Attending Pride

The Local Organisers worked extremely hard this season to ensure that participants had a safe and enjoyable day. Work that they put in is voluntary and in their own downtime, I am extremely grateful for the work that they do, not just at pride, but all year round.

There were some changes in the way communications were made this year, based on the feedback this appears to have had a positive impact. We are aware there is still some work to do, including ensuring that certain departmental firewalls on emails aren’t blocking other departments emails.

Lots of the feedback in this section has been positive, highlighting the great work the Local Organisers do, there have been some comments around the t-shirts being the same as previous years, or being asked to wear the t-shirts etc. The t-shirts have remained the same for the last few years, apart from a small run of pale pink t-shirts a few years ago (due to stocking issues). This enables the Network and its members to reuse and recycle t-shirts so that we are more sustainable and cost effective.

I know that there is also some disappointment with lack of float or parade entry sizes, especially with regards to London, parade entry numbers are limited by London Pride for each entry, our entries have been limited by budget. In addition, this year, we had approval to enter only walking groups into parades, had we not been restricted in this way a float would have exceed all budget and more.

Final Thoughts

We have received over 100 feedback forms and these will all help shape a better experience for those hoping to attend Pride 2025 with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

Whilst Pride 2024 season might be over there is still so much going on in the Network, our Local Organisers deliver throughout the year, whether that’s book club, socials, cinema trips, picnics, walks and more. Please check out the ‘Events’ page for all current events.

Pride Season is almost over …

2024-09-05T09:52:18+00:00

Pride season is quickly drawing to a close, as a Network there is only one more and by the time you read this it may have been. Middlesbrough Pride ends our Civil Service LGBT+ Network run of events, and what a season it has been.

There will be something more substantial published in the coming months when there is a full post pride review completed. Please keep an eye out for the Pride 2024 feedback form that will be being send out to all members that signed up to any prides, regardless of whether you attended or not. Please take the few minutes to complete this, it is really helpful in shaping 2025.

Before we move on, I want to thank all the Local Organisers who make pride season such a success, collating information, organising meeting points, parade entries, t-shirt collections, acting as responsible persons in the parade and much more. These events would not be a success without them. Thank You!

It is not just pride season and prides that the Network is heavily involved in. There are loads of social events that are happening around the UK all year round. These events vary from; lunch time café socials, picnics in the park, volunteering days, cinema clubs, book clubs and bar-based socials.

As a volunteer Network the Local Organisers to a great job at facilitating and supporting the Network in delivering these events, if there is something that doesn’t happen in your region and you would like to get involved, please do make suggestions and or offer to help run an event, our Local Organisers will do everything they can to support you.

Some regions have socials starting up again after some time off, Southampton has its first run of socials coming up from October! Some regions would also love some more dedicated support, if you are in the SW, Wales or East Anglia and want to get involved as a Local Organiser please do get in touch.

For all the events please check out the events tab at the top of the page. For more information on what being a Local Organiser entails please get in touch at vice-chair-regions@civilservice.lgbt

Pride 2024 - Registrations Remain Open

2024-05-07T06:34:06+00:00

Registrations Remain Open

Registration for all events that the Civil Service LGBT+ Network are attending remain open. Our pride season is kicking off in just a few weeks, with the first pride parade on 26 May 2024, in Durham. For a full list of the events please check out the Pride 2024 topics page.

Please spread the word in your departments and lets make Pride 2024 the best season yet. Happy Pride Everyone !

Change in Date

Please note that there has been an alteration to the Sheffield (Kelham) Pride date, this is happening on 1 June 2024, not 22 June 2024 as previously shown - apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Non-Balloted Prides

For any non-balloted events that you have signed up for you should expect an email from the Network with joining instructions approximately 4 weeks prior. After this date the local organiser(s) may get in touch to confirm t-shirt collection details, fine details or with some more informal communications in the run up to the event.

Balloted Prides

For the 2 balloted parades, London and Manchester, ballots will be run on 16 May 2024 and 11 July 2024, respectively. This is a randomly allocated ballot for both parades.

Every year feedback is received on this process and considerations are made to all options presented - first come first served, prioritisation of people that engage with socials/attendance at previous prides etc. I know that every year the random ballot is disappointing to many, for this, we apologise.

Parade numbers are restricted in balloted locations, either down to funding or space allocation from the parade organisers, or both. For clarity we have 100 spaces for the parade in London and 150 spaces for Manchester, at the time of publication we know that London will be going to a ballot.

Where a parade is balloted our local organiser(s) will be running a reserve list. Your local organiser(s) will be asking you to reconfirm your space in the parade so that we ensure our entry is full. Please make sure you respond to this email. If you do not, you will be risking your space in the parade, because people on the reserve list will be contacted.

The local organiser(s) ran a reserve list for Manchester Pride 2023 and we were able to ensure our entry was full and everyone on the reserve list had been contacted.

Final Registration Deadlines

Final registration deadlines are all shown as the week Wednesday before the pride event. This is to give the central team enough time to organise the delivery of t-shirts to the local organiser(s) for the event. If you are late registering but would still like to attend please email the local organiser(s) for that region who will be leading our group. To contact your local organiser, please use the email address linked on their regions topic page. Or email pride2024@civilservice.lgbt.

Alterations to Applications

If you have already submitted your application to parade with us and need to change your responses, you should be able to amend this through the link that Google Forms sent after the original submission. If you cannot find this or are simply wanting to add another pride on, you can submit a new form with the same email, but please only include the additional ones that you wish to add.

If you have signed up to attend events but can no longer come please do let the local organiser(s) know via email or let the Network know at pride2024@civilservice.lgbt. Letting someone know that you will not be attending is really important to keep track of numbers and for efforts by all in ensuring that t-shirts are in the correct place/excess numbers are not sent around the country.

Sustainability

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network will be supplying fetching bright pink t-shirts this year, these are the same as last year, colour and design. If you already have a CS LGBT+ Network t-shirt please do reuse last years, this helps the Network financially and from a sustainability point of view.

When communications are sent out from the Network or from the local organiser(s) please read this as some parades have strict rules on what can or cannot be used during the parade. For instance, London does not allow stickers, some parades want to ensure that there is less single use plastic etc.

Conduct

It is worth remembering that whilst you are in your Civil Service t-shirt, at muster points with the groups etc you are representing the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and the Civil Service Code of Conduct applies. Your local organiser(s) will remind you of this on the day too.

Pride 2024 - Where will we see you?

2024-04-11T07:56:30+00:00

Where will we see you this year? Staying local to your area or travelling it will be great to see so many of you parade with us.

26/05/2024 – Durham

01/06/2024 – Sheffield

01/06/2024 – York

08/06/2024 – Canterbury

22/06/2024 – Cardiff

22/06/2024 – Edinburgh

29/06/2024 – London

29/06/2024 – Sunderland

13/07/2024 – Bristol

20/07/2024 – Glasgow

20/07/2024 – Newcastle

21/07/2024 – Leeds

27/07/2024 – Belfast

27/07/2024 – Liverpool

27/07/2024 – Nottingham

27/07/2024 – Stockton-on-Tees

10/08/2024 – Darlington

10/08/2024 – Doncaster

24/08/2024 – Manchester

28/09/2024 – Middlesbrough

Please register joining the form here - ‘Registration Form’

Remember to take note of the parade you have signed up for and let your ‘Local Organisers’ know if you are no longer planning on attending.

Once again we ask that, in the name of sustainability and cost, if you have materials that you are able to reuse please do bring them with you. The t-shirt design will be the same hot pink t-shirt, so you are not missing out on a new design. Help us do our bit for the planet.

Pride 2024 Applications are Open

2024-04-11T07:55:45+00:00

This year’s pride applications are now live. The one form can be used to apply to join us at all of the pride parades, all pride events are listed on the ‘Pride 2024’ page. Find the form in any of the pride events on our website.

Some of the parades will be balloted. At the moment we think that this will be Pride in London and Manchester Pride. However, depending on uptake of other parades others may also go to a ballot, if this is the case a note will be added to that events page.

For all balloted Prides notification will be given 6 weeks from the event if you have been successful or not. Balloted prides are difficult and it is not fun letting people know that they have not been successful. If you have been successful, but your plans have changed, please do get in touch with your local organiser and let them know, so that your space can be reallocated.

For any of the pride events you register for, please ensure you let your local organiser know if you are no longer going to attend, this helps us all plan for the day.

Full details will be added to all pride event pages in due course. If you have any questions, please do get in touch with your ‘Local Organisers’. If you or your local Civil Service Department Networks are organising something for pride and would like it advertised wider, then please do get in touch with pride2024@civilservice.lgbt.

2024 LGBT+ mentoring programme: deadline extended

2024-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

We have extended the registration deadline for the 2024 Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme for one more week. This is your last chance to register, or you will not be able to take part in this year’s programme. Registrations will close on 5 April 2027, and matching will happen shortly after that.

Join the 300 mentors and 500 mentees that have already registered to take part in the programme, and sign up before it’s too late!

Need more information?

We’ve published detailed information about what’s involved in our ‘about the programme’ guide, and in our guides for mentors and mentees.

Register to take part

You can’t register to take part right now

Registrations for 2024 mentoring programme are currently closed. Our mentoring topic page contains the lastest information about the programme and when it will next be available.

Register now for the 2024 LGBT+ mentoring programme.

2024-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

You can now register to join the 2024 Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme. You can register as a mentee, a mentor or both. Registrations will close on 5 April 2027, and matching will happen shortly after that.

How the programme works

Taking part as a mentee

Give your career a boost and sign up as a mentee. The right mentor can help you to refine your career goals, identify opportunities for development and build your networks.

As a mentee, you’ll be asked to:

Set up ‘speed mentoring’ sessions with each mentor we match you with. It is your responsibility to arrange a suitable time and date. You should meet each mentor for an initial 30 minute session.
Decide if you want to keep a mentor. If you feel you can learn something from one of the mentors you meet, ask them if they can be your mentor long-term.
Lead your relationship with your mentor. If you are successful in securing a long-term mentor, it’s your responsibility to organise meetings and lead your relationship with them.

As a mentee, you can expect to:

receive up to 90 minutes of speed mentoring
work with a long-term mentor after your speed mentoring for up to a year
receive guidance on how to maximise your role as a mentee

Taking part as a mentor

Give something back and become an LGBT+ mentor. Acting as a mentor can help other, less experienced staff get on with their career. It can be a rewarding experience for you too; you can learn new skills and it makes a great corporate contribution.

As a mentor, you’ll be asked to:

Meet with up to 3 mentees for ‘speed mentoring’. You will be asked to meet for one, 30 minute session with each mentee. They will contact you to arrange a suitable time and date.
Agree to mentor at least one longer-term mentee. Once you have met all your mentees, we’d ask that you agree to keep meeting at least one of them to provide them with a mentoring relationship on an ongoing basis.

As a mentor, you can expect to:

be matched with someone one or two grades more junior to you
receive guidance on how to maximise your role as a mentor
have the chance to join a network of other mentors who you can speak to for advice too

Check you’re eligible to take part

In order to join the programme – either as a mentee or mentor – you must:

be a LGBT+: you must have a minority sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or variation in sex characteristics
be a civil servant: you must be an employee of the UK Civil Service, Civil Service in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales – contractors and interim staff cannot take part in this programme

Need more information?

We’ve published detailed information about what’s involved in our ‘about the programme’ guide, and in our guides for mentors and mentees.

We’ve also created some short videos to induct you to the programme.

Register to take part

You can’t register to take part right now

Registrations for 2024 mentoring programme are currently closed. Our mentoring topic page contains the lastest information about the programme and when it will next be available.

Local Organising with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

2024-02-06T09:19:57+00:00

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to help the Civil Service LGBT+ Network? Do you want to help organise local events, socials, sports, activities, trips with likeminded Civil Servants?

As we enter into a new year the Civil Service LGBT+ Network has had a stocktake of its regional organisers to make sure we can deliver the best for our members moving into 2024.

Our local organisers do a great job at connecting like minded Civil Servants across the whole of the UK. Some of our local organisers step back from time to time to focus on other work and opportunities. For those stepping away from the role, thank you for all of your help and support during your time in the role.

A local organiser is an important part of our community, they organise socials, pride entries, act as a point of contact for the Network and more. Are you someone that is energised to make a difference in the community in your local region and beyond, do you want to bring people together to build a sense of community and belonging, then being a local organiser may be for you. During 2023 we held, co-hosted, supported and advertised well over 100 different items and this year I am sure we will continue to grow.

We are looking for additional support with our Local Organising in some specific regions, if your region is not listed though and you would like to get involved please do get in touch.

Specific locations include; North East, Blackpool/Preston, Scotland, South East, South West and Wales.

Certain regions also have channels of informal communications, Local Organisers have the ability to reach out to members and advertise events/items directly to them. Some regions don’t have this yet, but you might like to set this up and run with monthly comms. For more information on Google Groups, check out the Groups Page.

If you would like to be part of a great team of volunteers that make this network happen please do get in touch with vice-chair-regions@civilservice.lgbt highlighting what region you are in, how you think you could help the network and then the VC for Regions and Nations will be in touch to have a conversation around the role.

New year. Future you: Our mentoring programme returns for 2024

2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Registrations for the third round of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s award-winning mentoring programme will open 2 March 2027. LGBT+ civil servants who want to sign up as a mentor or mentee on this year’s programme will be able to register via the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s website.

Don’t miss out on future updates

Sign up for email alerts from the Civil Service LGBT+ Network so you don’t miss the registration window.

We will also publish all our updates on the mentoring topic page.

Mentoring exclusively for and by LGBT+ civil servants

The Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme is the largest and only mentoring programme of its kind in the Civil Service. Since 2021, more than 1,800 mentors and mentees have signed up to take part.

We created the programme to give LGBT+ civil servants greater development opportunities, and to give junior staff greater access to more senior LGBT+ role models across government.

Everyone involved in the programme – the mentors, the mentees, and the people running the programme – is LGBT+.

It’s speed mentoring leading to long-term mentoring

When you join the programme, you’ll be matched with up to 3 people for speed mentoring. Mentees are matched with mentors that are at least 1 grade more senior than they are; and usually 2 grades.

Mentees can use their speed mentoring sessions for one-off advice or to explore whether the mentor they’ve been matched with could be a good longer-term mentor that will work with them for the next 12 months.

Don’t miss it!

The registration window will be open for 4 weeks. If you don’t register during that window, you’ll have to wait until the next round of the programme, which won’t be until 2025 at the earliest.

All our matching happens once using a software package. It’s fast. So fast, that we’ll be able to send out matches a couple of days after the registration window closes.

So there are no second chances or last minute registrations. If you miss it, you miss out!

Pride 2023 Review

2023-12-11T11:49:08+00:00

This year the Civil Service LGBT+ Network took part in a great array of pride events from May to September. Over 650 people were able to take part across 14 different events, thank you all for attending and making Pride 2023 season a brilliant one to remember.

We reached out for feedback from everyone that applied to parade with us, even those that were unsuccessful in our ballots, we had over 100 responses, both good and constructive. We did this to try and make Pride 2024 better and more successful than this year.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight some of the main bits of feedback and comment on how things might look for Pride 2024.

Entry to Parades

Some of the parades that Civil Service LGBT+ Network enter into are free, others cost money. We had a small amount of funding last year approved, and how this is spent is tightly monitored. We would love to have a seemingly endless pot of money for parade entries everywhere, floats galore and more, but we don’t.

Free pride parades and events were attended all over the UK again this year. These generally are not restricted by numbers and is a great opportunity for us to be visible in smaller places too. In 2024 we are hoping to visit more free parades and grass route pride events.

If you know that there is a pride parade or event in your area that is free and would like to see or help have a Network presence there, please do get in touch with your local organisers.

Parade Entry Sizes

There were a number of concerns that some our parade entries looked small in comparison to previous years and corporate entries. London, for instance, certainly was a lot smaller than before. In 2022 we had 250 spaces for the parade, and a float. With funding restrictions this year, we only had funding for 50 walking spaces.

Manchester was our largest outing this year, with 150 spaces, this was accompanied by APHA LGBT+ Network who had another 50 spaces. We filled c.180 spaces in total and what a sight it was.

Balloting Parades

Balloting parades is not something that we do lightly, we do this where we know that there are strict restrictions on the size of the groups that we have entered, whether that be due to funding or parade policy.

How we do this though is something that always receives some commentary, each year there are people that are unsuccessful in the ballot, but we do try to make sure a reserve list is run. Manchester, for example, had a reserve list to start with, but all places had been offered out before the parade. We know that not everyone agrees with this process, we have taken on board all feedback around this and will look to tweak, if appropriate, moving forward for Pride 2024.

Pride 2024

I know that we are still in 2023, however, thoughts have already turned to Pride 2024 season. We hope that people will come out in support of our offering next year as well and make it a year to remember.

For now, though, thanks for a great 2023 season and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Join up, Our Groups have expanded, again

2023-09-28T10:01:51+00:00

Google Groups

Groups are email based distribution lists. You can sign up in minutes; just by sending an email. Once you are subscribed, that’s it. If you change your mind later, you can unsubscribe again with one simple email.

Our Google Groups are expanding again, in addition to March’s increase we now have groups to join in Wales, Yorkshire and Humber and for Ethnic Minority Inclusion. We are hoping that the expansion of Groups will help boost engagement with those regions and topic areas. There are already Google Groups set up across a number of regions and topics.

Groups allow our Local Organisers to communicate more informally and potentially more frequently with our members. This can be used by the Local Organisers to help arrange and inform people of events and activities happening with your region or to do with a topic of your interest.

For a full list of areas that are covered, please check out the ‘Groups’ page. It is at this page you will also find joining instructions for the Groups.

Launching our new LGBT+ Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Reporting Tool

2023-08-11T14:44:24+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network and a:gender have developed a tool to record instances of bullying, harassment and discrimination (BHD) experienced or witnessed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, queer, trans, non-binary and intersex colleagues. We would also like to hear from friends, relatives, and allies who work for the Civil Service. We have created this in response to anecdotal evidence of a recent increase in BHD towards LGBT+ staff, particularly for trans, non-binary and intersex colleagues.

What is bullying and harassment?

Bullying and harassment is unwanted behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated or offended, or could be described as an abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates, or causes physical or emotional harm to someone.

Bullying and harassment might:

be a regular pattern of behaviour or a one-off incident
happen face-to-face, on social media, in emails or calls
happen at work or in other work-related situations
not always be obvious or noticed by others

It’s possible someone might not know their behaviour is bullying or harassing. It can still be bullying or harassment even if they do not realise it or do not intend to bully someone. The Equality Act 2010 is the legislation that defines what behaviours could constitute harassment.

Report incidents of bullying, harassment or discrimination

You can report an incident of bullying, harassment or discrimination online using our tool.

Report an incident online

This reporting tool does not have a closing date and provides an ongoing way for colleagues to record instances of bullying, harassment or discrimination.

How your data will be handled

Your responses are confidential and will only be visible to the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s Trans and Non-binary inclusion team and a:gender executive committee. Responses will be aggregated and used to identify key themes or issues. Findings generated from this data will be shared with Civil Service HR and the HR and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Teams within Civil Service departments, bodies or agencies. We will use statistical disclosure control methods to ensure no data is shared that could identify any individual person or incident.

No direct action will be taken about the incident being reported as a result of using this tool. If you require support with a specific BHD incident please contact your HR team, a trade union representative, departmental LGBT+ network or your department’s Employee Assistance Service.

If you have any other questions please contact info@civilservice.lgbt.

Election 2023: announcing the winner

2023-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

We’ve been conducting a process to find the next Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network over the past couple of months. Hundreds of staff across dozens of departments have taken part in this process, and after a closely fought election, we now have a winner!

I can now reveal that the new co-chairs of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network are Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale and Jefferson Welsby. I have published a breakdown of the results from each Civil Service organisation that participated, if you are interested in finding out how your department, or another, voted.

Both Saorsa and Jeff are the outgoing chairs of the Department for Work and Pensions LGBT network, DWP Pride. You can read a little more about them in their candidate statement from the election.

Handover and what happens next

Saorsa and Jeff will take up their posts from the end of July 2023. As the outgoing chair, I will remain in post the end of September 2023.

Day-to-day leadership of the network will sit with Saorsa and Jeff from 31 July, and I’ll use this two month overlap to wrap up some ongoing work and enable them both to have a smooth transition and handover.

Contact the co-chairs

We’ve set up an email address for your new co-chairs already, so you can start to get in touch with them. Their email address is chairs@civilservice.lgbt.

Creating the unofficial history of LGBT+ inclusion in the Civil Service

2023-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

For our twentieth anniversary, we’re looking back at the impact of staff networks on LGBT+ inclusion, and how the Civil Service has changed to be a better place for LGBT+ staff.

Help us capture moments that mattered to you

The Civil Service is a markedly different place to work than it was 20 years ago if you’re LGBT+. It has changed and evolved; and it still is.

Today, for most, your sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or other characteristics isn’t a blocker to building a career or making the Civil Service your home.

That journey – the journey of LGBT+ diversity and inclusion – was built on the backs of people determined to make things better. We want to capture what they did, so it isn’t forgotten.

We’re creating a time capsule

Later this year, we’re going to create a space, online, where we can keep the unofficial history of LGBT+ diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service. We want it to be filled with stories, photos, testimonials, “thank-yous” and more; all showcasing the efforts people made and impact it has had.

We don’t know exactly what we’re going to create yet, but we want you to be part of it.

Send us your memories

We want your stories and memories to be part of this unofficial history. We’ve created a new inbox – history@civilservice.lgbt – for you to send us things you think should be part of the story.

Perhaps you took some great photos at a Pride event. Or you wrote a diary entry on a day you got that promotion. Or you made a friend for life an event organised by your department. Maybe you want to say ‘thanks’ to someone that gave you the push to get that promotion.

We want to hear from as many people as possible. Current civil servants. Members of our network. LGBT+ staff. Network chairs. Our volunteers. Former volunteers. LGBT+ allies. Champions. Former or retired civil servants. If you’ve played a part, or you’ve felt the impact of someone else who has, we’d love to capture it in this new archive and celebration of inclusion.

It doesn’t matter what it is, we want to hear about it.

Send us your memories

Whatever you are contribution, send it to us before 31 July 2023 by emailing history@civilservice.lgbt.

What will happen to your stuff?

We’ll decide how we’ll present this new archive of LGBT+ inclusion once we’ve seen the kinds of things being contributed to it.

Our intention is to make the content publicly accessible, so please only share things that you are comfortable being put on to the open internet. If you’re sending us things about someone else, you should ask them too, if you can.

20 years of making the Civil Service better for LGBT+ people

2023-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the two cross-government LGBT+ networks: the Civil Service LGBT+ Network (formerly, the Civil Service Rainbow Alliance) and a:gender. What started as a small band of people keen to engage socially and seek personal support has now expanded into a membership of thousands, underpinned and led by dozens of civil servants who give up their time and skills to make the Civil Service better.

For 20 years, these two networks have worked to make the Civil Service a diverse, inclusive and more equal place to work for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people. We’ve helped raise awareness of the barriers LGBT+ civil servants face at work. We’ve represented the authentic voices of LGBT+ staff to ensure our employers meet our needs. We’ve supported those who are coming out or transitioning to be their authentic selves. We’ve created new career and development opportunities. And we’ve created a community of people like us, for us.

This summer, we’re marking our ‘birthday’ with a series of activities – some looking back, some looking forward, and some just for fun.

Find out more

You can find all of the events, and everything we publish over the next few of months, on our new 20th anniversary topic page.

Get involved

We’re also encouraging everyone to get involved to help us create the unofficial history of LGBT+ inclusion in the Civil Service. A time capsule, of sorts.

Photos of old pride events. Memories of socials and networking events. The poster you saw in your office that made you think differently.

Whatever you remember most vividly, write it down or send it to us and we’ll be adding it to a new section of our website in the coming months. Find out more in our recent blog post.

These are your candidates for Chair

2023-05-16T13:37:49+00:00

We’ve started an election to find the next Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

The deadline for nominations was last Friday, 12 May 2023. Four nominations were received before the deadline.

The candidates are:

Eamon Evans (Ministry of Defence)
Ross Starkie (HM Revenue & Customs)
Nic Turner (HM Prison & Probation Service)
Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale and Jefferson Welsby (Department for Work and Pensions)

Re-open Nominations is also a candidate; if they win, we will start a new election process.

We’ve now published statements from each candidate online, so you can find out more about them and what they want to do in the role if they are elected.

Ask the candidates a question

We are holding an online ‘hustings’ event for all of the candidates on 5 June 2023. To attend the hustings, please register to attend.

If you have a question you would like to ask the candidates, please email election@civilservice.lgbt before the event.

Voting is now open

Each department and agency is now able to hold its internal vote to determine who it will support for Chair. Whoever gets the support of most departments and agencies will win.

If you’re not sure how you can vote in your department or agency, contact your local departmental or agency network.

Nominations for the Civil Service Awards are open

2023-05-16T13:24:52+00:00

The Civil Service Awards are back, and nominations for this year’s awards are now open.

The skills, innovation, and ambition shown in the Civil Service remains unmatched. The awards programme is the best way to recognise and celebrate the hard work done by our colleagues over the last 12 months, in the midst of continuously challenging circumstances. This opportunity to say “thank you” to your colleagues, team, or LGBT+ network is not to be missed!

In 2021, the Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme – run by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network – won the ‘Developing and Supporting People Award’. If we can do it, you can to!

Visit the Civil Service Awards website to begin your nomination.

Nominations close on 21 July 2023.

Cross-government LGBT+ social events survey

2023-04-26T15:00:12+00:00

The network hosts regular social, networking, and learning and development events for all members, in-person and virtually.

We really value your feedback on these events, so would appreciate if you could fill in this short survey about the future of our events. We’d like to hear a little about what events you’ve attended in the past, and what you’d like from us in the future.

Click here to take part in our survey and give your feedback.

Pride 2023 Applications are Open

2023-04-19T07:43:16+00:00

This year’s pride applications are now live. The one form can be used to apply to join us at all of the pride parades, all pride events are listed on the ‘Pride 2023’ page. Find the form in any of the pride events on our website.

Some of the parades will be balloted. At the moment we think that this will be Pride Cymru, Pride in London and Manchester Pride. However, depending on uptake of other parades others may also go to a ballot, if this is the case a note will be added to that events page.

It could be you! Stand to be our new Chair.

2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

We are electing a new chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network; and it could be you!

As Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, you could define an exciting, transformative agenda; lead a diverse team; develop new skills; and change the Civil Service for the better.

How you can be the chair

The Chair is an elected post. It’s elected via an ‘electoral college’ system, where each department or agency gets one vote. Each organisation, in turn, must hold its own internal vote to decide who it will support.

Submit your nomination

To stand in the election, you need to get nominated.

Your nomination must send an email from your Civil Service email address to election@civilservice.lgbt before the close of nominations on 12 May 2023 at 23:59, containing the following information:

your full name
your current Civil Service employer
the name of at least one sponsor for your nomination – they must also be copied into the email and be eligible to act as a sponsor (you can find out more about this in the election rules
a personal statement of no more than 500 words – this statement will be published on the Civil Service LGBT+ Network website
a portrait photograph that will be published alongside your statement on the Civil Service LGBT+ Network website

Find out more

For full information about the election process and rules, please read the election guidance and visit our election 2023 topic page.

If you have any questions please email election@civilservice.lgbt.

John Peart to step down as chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Today, I’m announcing my intention to step down as chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, and firing the starting pistol on an election for our next chair.

I’m not disappearing immediately. The election process, published on our website, will see a gradual handover process for the new chair, completing over the Summer. It’s my intention to relaunch our mentoring programme for its third year and to mark the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s 20th anniversary before I step away.

If you’d like to run in the election, and would like to discuss what the role is like, drop me an email; I’d be happy to chat.

It could be you!

We’re holding an election for the next Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

Find out all the information you need on our Election 2023 topic page.

We’ve done loads, and it made a difference

This network has been my constant companion since I became a civil servant, almost 10 years ago. Back then, when I first joined and started to volunteer my time, our actively engaged membership counted in the dozens. A decade later our network has thousands of members; we host dozens of developmental and social events across the entirety of the UK; and more than 50 people directly help us to deliver our work. I’ve been helping along the way; first as a volunteer, then as vice-chair, and most recently, as chair.

Leading this team and representing the interests of LGBT+ civil servants across government has been an immense privilege, and I’m proud of the enormous amount of work that we’ve delivered together during my time as chair.

Our mentoring programme. Our largest ever presence at UK pride events. Ensuring there is a local network representative in every region of the UK. Our national conference. Restarting our socials and expanding them to every region of the UK. An array of learning and development events. Improving how our network operates internally. Providing more regular, focused opportunities for departmental networks to discuss shared issues. Establishing inclusion programmes for women, trans and non-binary people, and ethnic minority staff. Continuing our BiSpace programme and expanding it to include AceSpace. Tackling the rising threat of transphobia in our workplaces head on through engagement with Civil Service HR and with cross-government LGBT+ champions. Contributing to the development of HR policy. Collaborating with other cross-government networks and sharing best practice. I could go on…

In only 18 months, and with most of it happening in the margins and weekends, this network has done brilliant things.

Of course there’s always more to do. Some things haven’t gone according to plan, and there are always things to improve. But as I step down, I know that I, and the rest of our current volunteer team, have made a positive, transformative difference to the thousands of people that engage in our network regularly.

Thank you to our volunteers and network leaders

I want to take a moment to thank those who give up their time to support the cross-government LGBT+ network: our vice-chair team, our regional and national organisers, and our project teams. I also want to thank the dozens of individuals in departments that lead their own organisation’s LGBT+ networks: chairs, co-chairs, vice-chairs and wider committee members.

Thousands of small acts of selflessness keep our LGBT+ networks across the Civil Service alive. You are the life-blood of LGBT+ communities across the Civil Service, in your departments and agencies, and your role is vital to making our workplaces safe, connected and nurturing. Thank you for everything you have done to make this network thrive.

A final thought

It would be remiss of me not to note that this has been a difficult time to be a chair of an LGBT+ network. I’ve tried to make the most of a difficult landscape, and maintain a focus on positive interventions in spite of the prevailing winds. Whoever takes over will inherit a brilliant, energetic team and have the chance to lead a vibrant agenda; but they will also need lead in a way that is sensitive, thoughtful and consensus building. They will need to be protective of those most at threat, and have the resilience to confront some difficult conversations.

I firmly believe that the purpose of a cross-government network is to allow people to thrive. To make it possible and comfortable for people to bring their whole self to work. To ensure they have a community of people like them to identify with, so they feel like they belong in the Civil Service. To enable them to develop and grow in their professional life and careers. To set a positive example to everyone. To create consensus and acceptance; not division and fear.

Everything I’ve led, whilst I’ve been chair, has been dedicated to realising that vision. Whilst each new chair will have their own unique stamp on the role, I hope that whoever steps up to lead next will continue to build on that, so that every LGBT+ person can come to the Civil Service and be their best.

Join our new, expanded Groups

2023-03-03T09:43:43+00:00

Google Groups

Our Groups are expanding. Groups are email-based distribution lists. You can sign up in minutes; just by sending an email. Once you’re subscribed, that’s it. If you change your mind later, you can unsubscribe again with one simple email.

We are hoping with this expansion of Groups we will be able to help boost engagement on a local level. The North West has had a thriving group for some time now and it is a great way for people to be able to hear about more regional events from your local organisers. We have now launched a number of other Google Groups in different Regions & Nations. There are now Groups available in: London, North East, North West, Scotland and South East.

On top of the Regions and Nations there are two project groups available to join: AceSpace and BiSpace.

Joining a Group

To find out full details on how to join any of the Groups, visit the ‘Groups’ page.

Hello from our new Vice Chairs for Ethnic Minority Inclusion

2023-02-10T10:59:35+00:00

Hi all! As the new Vice Chairs for Ethnic Minority Inclusion, we would like to say hello to everyone!

Together we are hoping to create a safe environment for Civil Service staff who are both LGBT+ and who have a minority ethnicity to meet others, like themselves, and to provide opportunities to network.

We are hoping to run monthly, bi-monthly, and annual events to increase engagement with LGBT+ network and to enhance cohesion of staff who have a minority ethnicity within the Civil Service. This will include:

virtual and in-person socials
panel events aimed at career development
and joint events with other Civil Service networks

We are also aiming to run research projects to better understand any barriers experienced by LGBT+ and ethnic minority colleagues at work and how to address those challenges.

One of our aims is to promote and generate engagement with the network through increasing visibility and sharing events and opportunities across the Civil Service. If anyone would like to volunteer to support with any (or all!) of these proposed initiatives, please do reach out to us for more information.

You can contact us at vice-chair-ethnic-minority-inclusion@civilservice.lgbt.

Claire and Steve

Our trans and non-binary inclusion plan

2022-11-21T19:32:21+00:00

This plan has been written following a number of listening sessions in 2022 to understand the issues that matter to trans and non-binary civil servants. We will carry it out in coordination with the other programmes and activities of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, and the cross-government network for trans and intersex staff, a:gender.

1. Address bullying, harassment and discrimination of trans and non-binary civil servants

The Civil Service People Survey consistently shows that respondents who identify as transgender or neither a man nor a woman are more likely to report experiencing discrimination, bullying or harassment at work. We will:

Facilitate anonymous, online reporting of bullying, harassment and discrimination of trans and non-binary people across the Civil Service, such that we can highlight patterns, trends and issues to relevant departmental networks, departments, and Civil Service HR. This will allow us to build a more qualitative evidence base than what is currently available from the Civil Service People Survey. If this is successful, we will also expand this to other LGBT+ incidents.
Work with the Civil Service Inclusive Practice Team to incorporate information from our listening circles and the anonymised reporting into the design of the work they are doing.
Carry out educational events on bullying, harassment and discrimination.

2. Organise a programme of events

There was a clear appetite for events that promote learning and inclusion, such as we have had on our BiSpace and AceSpace programmes over the last few years. We will therefore organise events throughout the year to bring together trans and non-binary civil servants.

We will look to do some of these together with other work streams within the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and other cross government diversity networks where this helps promote intersectional issues relevant to trans and non-binary people.

Get involved

If you would like to support me deliver the trans and non-binary inclusion programme please get in touch at alan.edwards@civilservice.lgbt.

Ace Week: Day 4 – an anonymous civil servant

2022-10-27T08:28:51+00:00

Coming Out as Ace – an anonymous contribution from an Ace civil servant.

Asexuality was unknown in the popular consciousness as I was growing up. For that reason it was not until my mid 20s that I started to identify as Ace. I had friends suggesting I was asexual for years beforehand, but I originally rejected the idea. I didn’t feel sexual attraction to others, but I didn’t understand what asexuality is, so I didn’t feel like the label fit.

Asexuality is an often misrepresented and misunderstood orientation. From an infamous episode of House portraying it as non-existent and all due to a medical condition to confusions between celibacy and asexuality. Due to this everyone is affected by the misinformation. This includes those that may fall under the umbrella but think they are not eligible because, for example, they engage in sexual activities. This can increase feelings of isolation or that they might be broken in some way.

Even when as a person feels comfortable identifying as asexual the questions and comments asked by those around them can be alienating, insulting and upsetting. Again a lot of this leads from misinformation on what asexuality is. It seems only very recently that people seem to know what Asexuality means. When I first started coming out I had to explain the term constantly, but in recent years I may be asked questions but in general people understand the gist. However, those questions revealed to me some troubling issues.

For some reason coming out as asexual means some people throw basic curtesy out of the window and think it is appropriate to ask personal questions about sexual habits. Even if that pitfall is avoided questions implying that 1) asexuality does not exist, and 2) you are somehow mistaken in identifying as asexual, are disappointingly common. This ranges from “you just haven’t found the one yet”, to “you fear sex due to trauma and using asexuality as an excuse”. Even when inappropriate questions are not asked sometimes just too many questions are asked by a person who does not understand asexuality but is not willing to do their own research. Asexuality is an umbrella, and no one should expect a person to represent all of that, especially when all they intend is to personally come out! With these responses coming out can become a trial.

If you are not asexual I ask you respect someone coming out to you, be supportive and hold any curiosity or judgement in check. I highly recommend that you self-educate. The factsheet on the BiSpace home page is a good place to start with plenty of links to further information. If like me you prefer to learn through fictional encounters I can also recommend some more accurate asexual representation. On TV there is Todd in Bojack Horseman and Florence from Sex Education. There is also a growing market of books both non-fiction and fiction.

I highly recommend that if you are asexual to get in touch with other Asexuals for support. BiSpace hold bi-monthly virtual meet ups. The factsheet also gives links to useful forums such as AVEN. I also recommend getting in touch with your own work place LGBT+ network.

Ace Week: Day 3 – Robin

2022-10-26T07:50:05+00:00

The Evolution of AceSpace: Two Years On – by Robin Tamblyn, BiSpace Asexual Rep

I’m Robin and I am currently the Asexual Lead for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s BiSpace group, a position I volunteered for after experiencing aphobia outside the workplace. I self-identify as a heteroromantic asexual woman, as I am attracted romantically but not sexually to men.

October 2020 was the tenth anniversary of Asexual Awareness Week (now called Ace Week), an annual event held in the last week of October that puts asexuality in the spotlight. Part celebration of the progress we’ve made as a community, and part campaign for greater understanding and acceptance of asexual-spectrum identities such as graysexual and demisexual, Ace Week is a time to focus on all things ace! October 2020 was also the date of the inaugural (virtual) meeting of AceSpace.

AceSpace is a social event for civil servants on the ace and aro spectrums, including asexual, graysexual, demisexual and aromantic people. These groups are often underrepresented within the LGBT+ community with few visible role models, so this event was created to give aces and aros a space to meet and chat.

The first meeting, hosted by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s Bi+ Inclusion Team, included a panel discussion around asexuality and the asexual spectrum, and what it’s like to be an ace civil servant. It also provided an opportunity for ace civil servants and allies who wanted to know more about asexuality to ask questions and discuss asexuality and ace inclusion in the Civil Service.

This event was held over Zoom and I was initially unsure about how many participants we would have, given that this was the first event of its kind held by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network. It turned out to be one of the best-attended events of the year with over 50 participants at one stage! From a personal point of view it was great to “see” so many attendees and to hear all their stories. Before this event I had met maybe 3 ace people and now I had met over 30! Other attendees commented that it was the first time they had ever “met” another openly-ace person and the first time they had really felt included as part of the LGBT+ community.

Since our first event that October, several more AceSpaces have been held virtually over Teams or Zoom, approximately every 2 months, with formal “themed” events alternating with more casual socials. Now the COVID restrictions have eased I am hoping that we may be able to arrange some in-person meetups and I am also keen to encourage more aromantic participation in these events too.

Ace Week: Day 2 – The Barefoot Backpacker

2022-10-25T08:41:15+00:00

Asexuality and Age – by Ace icon “The Barefoot Backpacker” from The Office of National Statistics

I came to discover Asexuality much later than most people do. For me, it wasn’t until I read an article in the Guardian newspaper in 2011 or 2012, when I was already in my late 30s, that I first came across the word ‘asexual’, and it resonated with me; the more I thought about it over the years afterwards, the more I was comfortable taking the word on as my own. It just made so much sense, that there was a word that I could finally use that described me in enough detail to be meaningful. A lack of sexual attraction. It’s something that’s not important or necessary for me in order to get close to someone.

That’s my discovery, but I’m a little unusual in the community.

I’m on a Discord server run by an asexuality podcast, and last year there was a survey on the membership. 136 people replied, and it turns out I was the 3rd oldest person who responded. 89% of the respondents were under 30; indeed just over 70% were Generation Z, two whole generations down from me.

Partly this may of course be due to Discord itself being a ‘young person tool’. However, if we look at the wider community, we see the same kind of pattern. Some of the most visible asexual activists tend to be younger; Yasmin Benoit, arguably the most notable asexual figure, was born in 1996; most of the other activists – for example the two ladies running Sounds Fake But Okay, the Youtuber, Slice of Ace, the comedian Elliot Simpson – are the same age or slightly younger – the top edge of Generation-Z.

And this is great. It means upcoming generations have role models to relate to, and a community of peers that proves they are valid, so going forward asexuals and related orientations should never feel lost, alone, or confused about whether they’re just ‘odd’ or not, and therefore never face the same issues people like me faced.

But where are the others like me? Where are all the other older asexuals?

See, it’s likely we just do what gay men did previously. We hide in plain sight. We mouth the words, go through the motions of a ‘normal’ life, despite not being happy in ourselves, despite knowing it felt wrong but feel we’re not able to do anything about it. How many loveless marriages were entered into? How many people married just for the show, not for the love or connection? Remember of course asexuals can have sex, some of them even enjoy it, but by not experiencing sexual attraction, they would have felt stuck in a heterosexual dystopia and not free to express their own identity.

Amongst the older generation, especially those who’ve been in long-term marriages, having now been introduced to the word ‘asexuality’, there’s a little confusion over what it means, over how you know that you’re asexual, rather than just, well, comfortably indifferent to sex. Think of being married for 20 years – many people no longer having the urge. But remember that’s not what asexuality is; it’s not about how much sex you have, but how much sexual attraction you experience. And yes, if you’ve been married 20 years and have sex once a week, you could be asexual, but it’s more likely that you still have sexual attraction to your partner, you just don’t have the urge to act on it as frequently. You’d rather eat cake because it’s just easier than having sex, not because you don’t have the attraction to have sex.

So, what can we do? Should more of Generation-X (and maybe even Boomers) to ‘come out’ as asexual? Will it make a difference?

One might argue it’s not “as important” to ‘come out’; by the time you reach your 30s even, your life has veered down a particular path and maybe people think it ‘too late’ to change course, that ‘ah, if I were younger I’d have known but what’s the point now’, or ‘I’ve got this far, I can cope’, or ‘what will my [descendants] family think if I changed now’. Is it even relevant to me; I’ve been in a relationship for x years.

There’s also the thought society has ‘conditioned’ us into our heteronormativity, so maybe don’t feel we belong, that we’re kind of ‘appropriating’ asexual culture and ideals for our own benefit. Maybe too we might ourselves believe we’re simply going through a mid-life crisis, in the same way youngsters are ‘experimenting’ just after puberty. Previous generations bought motorbikes, discovered their author credentials, and took up crochet; if we started saying ‘it’s okay to be asexual’, would we start to see an increase of numbers in people getting divorced and deciding to, I don’t know, take up ultra-running or spoon-whittling in the forest?

Because fewer of us have ‘come out’, there’s fewer role models to see. If all the little asexual representation there is, is at the younger end of the age spectrum, will anyone believe us (because ‘people our age don’t do that’). In a way it’s like a ‘Chicken and Egg’ scenario – without the representation, we’re not going to ‘come out’, but if we don’t ‘come out’, there’ll be no representation. This also means by ‘coming out’ it’s much harder to ‘relate’, so there’s no ‘reference point’ – what does ‘coming out’ mean in the context of an older asexual; how do we explain it without a 30 minute TED talk each time, especially to our peers who’ve been brought up in the same environments.

We also don’t have the support networks younger people have - the representation and communities are on places like Discord, Tumblr, YouTube, whereas people my age are most likely to hang out on Facebook and Twitter.

And the more people like you there are, the bigger the community and the bigger the spirit. In my experience, the communities I’ve found haven’t had a problem with my age, even if some of them are made up with people some 30 years younger than me. I don’t know how I’d have felt at the age of 15 if someone 30 years older than me was in my social group, but in a way it’s kind of useful; they appreciate my experience and their discoveries, their activism, help me with mine.

Ace Week: Day 1 – Justin

2022-10-24T08:14:19+00:00

Justin’s Ace Odyssey – by Justin at the UK Health Security Agency

Throughout my life, in my deepest thoughts and innermost self I have always had this sense that I was meant to be separate, to live alone. When I entered my teens this became more prominent. My peers in school were obsessed with talking about sex. I found this totally incomprehensible and quite repugnant but tried if I could to avoid it. A time I found particularly difficult to deal with was during the AIDS crisis of the late ‘80s. At this time explicit talk about sex and relationships was everywhere in the media and this fuelled the obsession of my peers in school even more acutely. They started to ask me questions about my own feelings; questions which quite frankly were none of their business. “Why don’t you go out with girls?”. I said I just did not want to. “Are you gay?”. To which I answered that I had no interest in going out with boys either so no I am not gay either. They said it was impossible that I did not feel some kind of attraction or urge and therefore I could not be human. In my 20s, 30s and 40s, there were times when I fell in love with various women from a distance or perhaps rather it was infatuation and think perhaps it would be nice to have a wife or girlfriend. But this was idealistic. At heart I know there was no way I would have wanted any intimate kind of relationship. In the government department I worked in previously there were people who hurled the word ‘Incel’ at me which I found deeply insulting and hurtful. I had unwanted attention from a girl on this department in whom I would have had no interest anyway, even if I was looking for a romantic or intimate relationship and some people told me to go with her as I could not die a virgin. Needless to say I paid no attention to them but it still hurt me very much.

I am 50 years old now and have accepted who I am and am totally comfortable with it. I have many male and female friends but have no desire to be “more than just friends” with any of them. I am very happy that there is a term for what I have come to identify myself as i.e., Asexual. This did not exist even in the recent past. However we now have a community. Public figures like David Jay and Yasmin Benoit have done so much to put us on the map and raise awareness. There is also so much diversity within the ACE community itself so there is room for everybody! At the more ‘local’ level, it is great that we have the ACE network here in the Civil Service for like-minded people to meet up in a non-judgemental space, feeling that we are not the ‘only ones’ and have some fun and fellowship. However there is a lot more work to be done. Asexual and Aromantic people are possibly the least understood community in the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Still most diversity monitoring forms for Civil Service vacancies do not even provide ‘Asexual’ as an option when they ask you about your sexual orientation. So this is a road we have only started walking along. But the main thing is we are on it and let’s stay on this journey!

Get last minute places to the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference 2022

2022-10-05T12:00:36+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Conference is taking place tomorrow, on 6 October 2022 at the 1 Victoria Street conference centre in London. You can still get a place to attend.

Some additional tickets are becoming available due to previously registered attendees dropping out. To secure your place, visit the Eventbrite page to register. You can secure a place up to 5pm today.

Keep checking the Eventbrite page throughout the afternoon to snag a last minute place as we process more cancellations.

Rail strike action – 5 October

Some trains are affected by strike action on 5 October 2022; the day before the conference. Trains on the day of the conference are also likely to be affected by strike action in the morning.

Please check the latest journey information with your rail operator if you are travelling to London. If you are no longer willing or able to travel due to the strike action, please cancel your place as soon as possible.

If you can no longer

If you want to cancel your place, you can do this directly on the Eventbrite website or, if that doesn’t work, email conference@civilservice.lgbt

Bi Visibility Day 2022

2022-09-22T16:00:16+00:00

23 September is the day us Bisexual folks celebrate the history of bisexual people celebrate our history and our community, and raise awareness of our experience of living with a sexual orientation that can mean we artificially get read as straight or gay depending on who we are partnered with, if we are partnered at all.

This year I have been thinking about members of our Bi+ community who are more hidden than others. Within the LGBT+ community, A report from the Office for National Statistics in 2019 identified that among the LGBT+ community, men were approximately twice as likely to say they were gay than bisexual. Whereas women where somewhat more likely to say they were bisexual than lesbian. My experience of Bi+ spaces has borne this out, and I have encountered men online in social networking Bi+ spaces expressing that they felt less valued and less welcome, and also that masculinity itself was less valued. This inspired me to go on a bit of a learning journey to find out more about the experiences of Bi men and their particular history of invisibility and exclusion. I found this YouTube video particularly thought provoking (apologies for the provocative title) Why We Hate Bi Men - YouTube and I have been immersing myself in the “Two Bi Guys” podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple, UK player etc.

Not all masculine-appearing people are men of course, and people’s gender presentation has a nuanced effect on how they experience Bisexuality and on how they are received by the world. We had planned to host an informative panel event on Bi+ Masculinities for the entire LGBT+ civil servant community earlier this week, but we postponed this event due to period of national mourning, and have just rescheduled it to Monday 10 October at 6pm. Rearranging the event also gives us opportunity to add more diversity to the panel, we would have room for one or two more speakers. I’d be particularly interested in featuring your story if you are a trans bi+ man, or if you are a butch/masc presenting cis bi+ woman, or if your experience of ethnicity intersects with your experience of bi+ masculinity – if you’d be willing to speak on a very friendly panel for 5 minutes or so on 10 October, and then take part in a discussion in a safe space, please get in touch by emailing info@civilservice.lgbt in the next week.

Finally, I am planning to run a session for Bi+ folks at the forthcoming Civil Service LGBT+ Conference in London on 6 October. This will focus on visibility and the benefit of out role models at work in helping people become more confident, authentic and thus perform at their best. At time of writing (22 Sep) there has been industrial action advertised on the railways on 5 October, meaning I might have some difficulty travelling; I’ll be at the mercy of the rail companies’ contingency plans as I live a long way from London. All being well I do hope to see some of you there; living in Carlisle means opportunities to mix with my fellow Bi+ civil servants in person are thin on the ground and I am really looking forward to it. If the train gods are not smiling on me, we will be offering a virtual conference at a later date and I will run the session then.

Happy Bi Visibility Day!

Two weeks to go until the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference 2022

2022-09-22T12:47:49+00:00

Two weeks to go until the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference 2022

We’re really excited to be welcoming you to the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference 2022 on 6 October.

This update will give you important information you need to know ahead of the conference.

The address

The conference is being held at:

BEIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET

The conference centre entrance is to the left of the main BEIS entrance.

The nearest tube stations are:

Westminster (Jubilee Line)
St. James Park (District and Circle Line)
Victoria (Victoria Line)

See the venue on Google Maps

Registration

Registration will open at 09:30 and close at 10:10.

The conference will start at 10:15.

If you are going to be late, please do not worry, just speak to the BEIS conference reception team and they will direct you to the right place. We will have volunteers and signage situated around the building on the day.

Tickets

If your place is secured, you should have received a booking confirmation from Eventbrite.

On the day, please bring your civil service identification or building pass. If you do not have one, please bring some form of proof you are a civil servant. This could be your booking confirmation email sent to your civil service email address.

You do not need to bring a physical ticket with you.

Refreshments and dietary needs

Tea and coffee will be provided during registration and at the end of the day for an informal networking event.

A light lunch will also be provided.

If you have any special dietary needs, please let us know by 17:00 27 September using our dietary needs form.

It may not be possible to accommodate all requests for special dietary needs. Where this is not possible, you should rely on your department’s normal subsistence and expenses arrangements to claim back the cost of food or drink.

You are free to bring your own refreshments and food on the day if you wish. The conference centre is located close to Strutton Ground where a variety of vendors are available, if you wish to eat lunch elsewhere. Speak to a conference volunteer on the day to find out where to go if you are unsure.

We recommend bringing a water bottle as there will be facilities available to fill this up.

Train strike

Industrial action is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 5 October. This may have a knock-on impact to travel on Thursday 6 October.

We suggest you follow the latest guidance from National Rail and, if feasible plan, your journey around this. You should build in time for any potential delays.

If you had intended to travel on 5 October, you may wish to consider asking for permission to work from a London office on 5 October and instead travel on 4 October. Any approvals to do this would be for your manager and organisation to agree.

If you are unable or no longer wish to travel

If your journey is affected by the train strikes, and you are unable to travel or no longer wish to travel, please cancel your place via Eventbrite. If you have any issues doing this, please contact conference@civilservice.lgbt.

We will be hosting a similar online-only conference event later in the year for those who are unable to attend in person.

Cancelling a place

If you do not wish to attend the conference for any reason, please cancel your place as soon as possible. You can cancel your place easily on the Eventbrite website. If you have any issues doing this, please contact conference@civilservice.lgbt.

There are many people on a waiting list wishing to secure a place; do not let them miss out!

Register for GovWi-Fi

We are aiming for the conference to be paper free. Please sign-up to GovWi-Fi in advance. This will enable you to use the internet on the day to access our resources including the delegate booklet and Sli.do for questions.

You are unlikely to have sufficient mobile network signal in the BEIS conference centre.

Instructions on how to sign-up can be found on GOV.UK.

Connect to GovWifi

Additional facilitates

There will be a multifaith prayer room within the BEIS conference centre for delegates to use on the day. This room is non-denominational and is accessible to delegates of all faiths, and of no faith, for individual contemplation and/or prayer.

If you have any specific access requirements please email: conference@civilservice.lgbt.

Agenda

We are pleased to provide an overview of the agenda:

Sessions and workshops

Bringing your authentic self to work – reflections from LGBT+ civil servants

In this panel session, you will gain an insight into the work practices of different LGBT+ civil servants in how they have navigated their sexuality, gender, and identity throughout the course of their career.

Local Presence, National Influence – LGBT+ inclusion across the whole United Kingdom

In this panel session, you will hear from LGBT+ staff network leaders, representatives, and members from different departments across all four nations of the UK. They will share their experiences in organising LGBT+ inclusion activities at departmental, local and national levels and how they are working together as one Civil Service.

In conversation with LGBT&I SCS Champions

In this session, you will hear first-hand from senior civil servants talking about their role as an LGBT&I champion including why they are a champion, what it means to them, how they actively carry out the role, and what they’ve learnt from doing it.

Implementing effective change in the workplace

In this presentation, you will learn how a LGBT+ civil servant has implemented an effective data driven change within their organisation and the result it had.

Speed Mentoring

Join your colleagues for a rapid mentoring session. You will be given the opportunity to network with a range of peers from different professions and grades, tailored to a specific area of your interest. You never know, you may just find a match!

Succeed at success profiles

A workshop to support civil servants navigate the success profile framework.

Lessons from the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

A presentation on the new Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, with tips on how to make the most of it and what you can do to support the implementation of it.

Tackling Bullying, Harassment or Discrimination (BHD), lessons from the People Survey

An update on the work being led by the Civil Service Inclusive Practice Team on BHD.

Bringing your Whole Self to work

An interactive workshop considering the barriers people face to coming out at work and how we can recognise and feel confident addressing inappropriate behaviour and language that could cause barriers to an inclusive workplace.

Listening circles

Throughout the day we will be holding listening circles for LGBT+ staff who are bisexual, trans or non-binary, women, or have a minority ethnic background.

Choosing your sessions

You should note you will not be able to attend every session and therefore you should start to think about which ones you would benefit from the most.

Timings for the sessions, panellists and speakers will be released soon.

Something missing?

See something missing from the agenda that you think will add value to the day and you could facilitate? Let us know and we can explore whether we can accommodate it.

You will be sent a conference delegate pack next week with a full agenda and tips on what you think about before the day to get the most of the sessions.

Pride in the North West: four months, four counties and 16 events!

2022-09-01T08:40:54+00:00

Ross, Bryan and I are the North West local organisers for the Civil Service LGBT+ group. We have organised participation in the Pride parades at:

Blackpool Pride
Liverpool Pride
Chester Pride
Manchester Pride

As well as parades, we have also organised Pride social events at:

Salford Pink picnic
Sparkle in Manchester
Didsbury Pride
Preston Pride

And we’ve kept up our regular monthly socials in Liverpool, Manchester and bi-monthly socials which alternate between Blackpool and Preston.

After a very quiet 2020/2021, our Pride season in the North West started in June at Blackpool and concludes in September at Preston. We have covered 4 out of the 5 counties in the North West, and will have organised 15 events over the last four months as well as supporting the Environment Agency at Chester Pride (thank you for having us).

As a cross-Civil Service group, we have met with some amazing colleagues from around the country and more departments than I knew existed. It has been incredible to network and socialise with new faces but also build on existing relationships too.

We have been privileged to have been involved in so many people’s ‘First Pride’ stories and touched at how many of the community and our allies want to show solidarity and be visible with us as civil servants. Our numbers have varied from 13 to 103. Each one has required a lot of time and energy but worth every minute when it all comes together – the smiles, joy and positivity really makes it.

We do all this on top of our day jobs as volunteers and we couldn’t have done it without our helpers in the background; departmental contacts sharing information, colleagues promoting events, as well as those participating and continuing to support our events – so a big thank you too all.

As well as the Civil Service network, a:gender – the cross Civil Service trans and intersex network – are so welcoming to us when we meet them at events. The joy of catching up in person with real people has been overwhelming this year.

We do this because we want everyone to have someone to walk with or to and not feel like they are left in the shadows alone, like a lot of us were in the past. I always describe our role as a compass: knowing the right person, team or organisation to point to but also staying on the path till you know where you are.

As a region we also have a newsletter that we send out to keep everyone involved and aware of things that we are doing. This is an additional email to the main Civil Service LGBT+ Network email alerts. If you would like to sign up please follow the below steps.

Join the North West region mailing group

To join the North West regional mailing list:

Send a blank email to northwest+subscribe@groups.civilservice.lgbt(link sends e-mail)
Wait for a response from the system (check your junk folder after a few minutes if you don’t receive a response)
Reply to the email with a blank message (which will be to northwest+subconfirm@groups.civilservice.lgbt)– If you see a button in your browser that says “join this group”, don’t click it, as this step fails
You will then receive email confirming that you have joined, and start to receive newsletters when we send them out

Our next events can be found on the Events page

Many thanks for reading and please continue to support all the local and national networks as together we do make a difference

Matt (otherwise known as the ribbon man)

Last chance for tickets to the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference

2022-09-01T08:36:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Conference is taking place on 6 October 2022.

If you want to attend the conference, we are releasing a final wave of tickets on Monday 5 September at 10:00.

You can secure your place by registering on Eventbrite.

Not working on Monday?

You can access the event booking system via a personal device if you are not working on Monday.

Please ensure you register using your work email address, even if you are using a personal device. This helps us confirm you are a civil servant.

Reserve list and other ways to take part

Demand for the conference is high, and not everyone will get a place. If you don’t secure a ticket, you can add yourself to a reserve list after all tickets are sold out.

Alternatively, you can take part in a virtual conference, covering similar content, later this year.

Find out more

Find out more information on our Conference topic page.

More tickets for the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference

2022-08-24T14:37:45+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Conference is taking place on 6 October 2022.

If you want to attend the conference, we are releasing more tickets. The tickets will be released in two waves on:

Monday 29 August at 10:00
Monday 5 September at 10:00

You can secure your place by registering on Eventbrite.

Find out more information on our Conference topic page.

Secure a last minute place with us at Manchester Pride

2022-08-24T14:25:41+00:00

With 3 days to go we have had a number of spots that have opened up for Manchester Pride 2022. If you would like to join the North West Civil Service LGBT+ walking entry please email northwest@civilservice.lgbt with your T-Shirt size (S,M,L and XXL are the sizes available) as soon as possible.

We have increased our numbers and will have the biggest ever Civil Service presence at Manchester Pride ever.

What happens next

Matt or Ross will confirm your email and send you the information pack through.

The Manchester Pride parade is on Saturday 27 August 2022.

Manchester has some areas over pride weekend that are ticketed. You will need a ticket if you wish to go in these areas. Tickets are sold directly via the Manchester Pride website.

What happens if you now cannot make the parade?

If you cannot make the parade please email northwest@civilservice.lgbt as soon as possible so that the north west organisers can manage the reserve list for the parade.

We’re also taking part in Pride Cymru in Cardiff this weekend. If you’d like to join us, details are available on the event page.

Secure your place at the Civil Service LGBT+ Conference 2022

2022-08-16T11:00:44+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ conference is a career development and workplace inclusion conference exclusively for LGBT+ civil servants. It will be held on 6 October 2022, in-person, at the BEIS Conference Centre in London. This learning and development event is free of charge.

Register to attend

Registrations will open on 22 August 2022 at 10:00. You can secure a place at the conference via Eventbrite. Tickets will be released in three waves so that everyone get’s a fair chance to secure a place.

Tickets will be made available on:

Monday 22 August at 10:00
Monday 29 August at 10:00
Monday 5 September at 10:00

Register to attend and save the date.

6 October 2022 at the BEIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London

What to expect

On the day, you can expect keynote speeches and panel discussions focusing on:

transforming your career in the Civil Service
implementing effective, data-driven change in your workplace
bringing your authentic self to work
effective allyship across employee voice networks

You’ll also be able to take part in speed mentoring and a range of breakout sessions covering successful profiles, confidence and resilience building and much more.

More information about the agenda will be released soon.

Help on the day

If you would like to volunteer to help out with the conference on the day either by facilitating a session, speaking, or managing logistics, please indicate this when you sign up or email the conference team at conference@civilservice.lgbt.

Can’t attend in person?

For those not able to attend in person, there will be a digital version of the conference taking place later on in the year. Please register your interest here instead. More information will be made available in due course.

Civil Service LGBT+ Network local organiser vacancies

2022-08-09T11:41:03+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network organises a series of events and socials throughout the year, with many being delivered close to you.

We are run entirely by volunteers. We are looking for additional Regional Leads to join our team for the following regions and nations:

East of England
East Midlands
North East
South East
Wales (Middle/North)
Yorkshire and Humber
Northern Ireland

You can have a look of the role description for our Regional Leads at https://www.civilservice.lgbt/publication/local-organiser-role-description

For our current team, including our bios and photos, please visit https://www.civilservice.lgbt/team/

If you are based in one of above areas and are interested in the role, please contact Ed at ed@civilservice.lgbt, quoting the following in your subject line:

Regional Lead + Your Region/Nation

We can then arrange an informal chat to discuss this with you.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Thank you.

Supporting womens’ inclusion in the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

2022-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

I’m Anna, and I’m your new Vice Chair for Womens’ Inclusion. I work in international teacher recruitment at the Department for Education.

I’ve noticed that women aren’t always visible in the cross-government LGBT+ network, and I want that to change. I want to find out what the network can offer to women, and what we can do to make women feel safer and more supported. Do you want educational events? Socials? Career support? Or just the chance to meet new people? I’d really love to hear what’s on your mind.

I will be hosting a series of women’s listening circles. These will be open to any civil servant who identifies as a woman or femme, and considers themselves to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. These virtual spaces will be inclusive, safe, and informal.

Come along, meet new faces, and, most importantly – share your thoughts. You can come to one, or as many as you like.

Join our listening circles

All these listening circle sessions will be held online via Microsoft Teams. Details will be sent to those who have registered to attend in advance.

Our first listening circle will be at 11:00 to 1200 on Tuesday 12 July 2022.

Find out more details for this event

Our second will be at 15:00 to 16:00 on Thursday 4 August.

Find out more details for this event

Our third circle will take place at 13:00 to 14:00 Thursday 18th August.

Find out more details for this event

Share your Civil Service Pride photos

2022-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

Pride season is here, and the Civil Service LGBT+ Network is coordinating in-person attendance at 14 separate Pride events this year.

If you have attended, or are planning to attend, a pride event with us, we’d love to see your photos.

We’ve created a shared Google Photos album where you can upload photos and also see photos uploaded by others who were in attendance.

How long will this be available for?

We’ll make this link available for uploading photos until the end of September 2022, when all our Pride events will be concluded.

Access to and use of your photos

If you share your photo with us, we might use it in promotional materials for future Pride events or for wider Civil Service LGBT+ Network activities.

Anyone else will access to this link will also have access to photos you upload.

If you want your photo removed

If you spot yourself in a photo and want it to be removed, please email us with the link to the photo at info@civilservice.lgbt.

Nominate someone for the Civil Service Awards 2022

2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Nominate now at www.civilserviceawards.com

Do you know a team who have championed inclusion?
Have you got an exceptional team leader?
Or maybe you have worked with someone who has solved a problem with an innovative solution?

Whatever work you want to recognise, the Civil Service Awards is the way to celebrate your colleagues with style and panache, and it’s now back for the 17th year running! With 12 categories to choose from on the (Civil Service Awards website)[www.civilserviceawards.com/categories] you will have everything you need to shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes in the Civil Service.

As an added bonus, you will also have the opportunity to submit your nomination for the ‘A Modern Civil Service Awards’ - a new quarterly set of awards designed to recognise, on a more regular basis, the everyday heroes who are driving action to build A Modern Civil Service.

Don’t delay your nomination, the deadline is only a few weeks away on 22 July 2022!

How to make a nomination

If you know someone or a team whose contribution to the country cannot be ignored, this is what you need to do:

Nominate now by heading to www.civilserviceawards.com
Choose from one of the 13 categories on offer that’s best suited to the nominee. Want to make more than one nomination? Not a problem! You can submit as many forms as you like.
Check the criteria for the category and include as much detail as possible to get your nomination noticed by the judges.
Make sure you check the team/individual you nominate is correctly named on the form, and the contact details for yourself and the nominee are correct.
The A Modern Civil Service Awards launched today too; no need to fill out duplicate forms - just use the tick function on your form to automatically submit your Civil Service Award nomination straight into the AMCS Awards!
…And then you’re done!

Who will be judging each category?

We are delighted to have an excellent mix of minds for Civil Service Awards 2022, with some big names you will recognise too. Each of the category champions will convene panels to sift through the 100s of nominations received, and pick their top 5 (no mean feat!). The final judging panel, chaired by Shona Dunn (Civil Service Awards 2022 Champion) will pick the winners - and all the shortlisted nominations will be invited to the awards ceremony where all will be revealed.

You can find out about the Category Champion and Co-Champions on (the awards website)[www.civilserviceawards.com/category-champions].

Got any questions?

You can email civilservicecomms@cabinetoffice.gov.uk if you have any questions about the awards, process, and website.

Good luck to everyone who is nominating and is nominated!

Save the date: Civil Service LGBT+ conference

2022-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

As we previously set out, we are hosting a conference for LGBT+ civil servants this year on workplace inclusion and career development.

We are pleased to announce that we have now secured a date and a venue to host the in-person aspect of the conference.

It will be taking place on:

Thursday 6th October

The event will be held in-person at:

BEIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET.

Timings, agenda, and logistics to be confirmed in due course.

Registration will open next month so please keep an eye out for the form. If required, we recommend speaking to your line manager about it now and putting a scheduler in your calendar for the day.

There will also be access digitally across two days (6th and 7th October) so don’t worry if you can’t attend in-person on the day.

We’ve been busy behind the scenes planning for the past few months, so look forward to sharing more details with you shortly.

Interested in speaking at the conference, facilitating a session, or just helping out? Drop us an email to let us know where you can support.

Places at Pride in London 2022

2022-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

Pride in London 2022 is only a few weeks away.

As we explained when we announced our plans for pride 2022, there are only a limited number of places we are able to offer for Pride in London each year. We committed to running a ballot to allocate places in our parade group, around 4 weeks prior to the event.

We have now concluded the ballot and places have been allocated.

If you have been allocated a place

If you have been allocated a place, you will have received an email from us confirming you’re in our parade group. Further details will be released shortly.

Your place is for you and you alone. We cannot offer places for additional friends or family, due to limited capacity.

We’re running a reserve list

If you didn’t get a place, you will be automatically placed on a reserve list. The reserve list will be drawn from on a first-come-first-served basis, to make sure we fill all our places.

You will be emailed when a place becomes available.

Cancelling a place

If you no longer wish to attend, please email us at pride@civilservice.lgbt.

Tell us about pride events you’re holding

2022-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

Pride season is nearly here! We’re excited to see the Civil Service LGBT+ Network participating in Pride marches all across the UK this summer. We’ll also have socials and events, both in-person and virtual, to come along to in celebration of the season.

Advertise your Pride events through the CS LGBT+ website

Does your department have an event happening for Pride season (virtual or in-person), that you’d like to advertise to civil servants in other departments?

Fill in the details of your event using this Google Form to advertise it on our website.

Get involved

Do you have any ideas for cross-Civil Service virtual events for Pride season, or would you be interested in helping organise them?

If so, please contact Astrid.Crowley@cabinetoffice.gov.uk about getting involved.

Last chance to register for Pride in Blackpool

2022-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network will be attending Pride in Blackpool on 11 June 2022. The deadline for registrations is fast approaching: don’t miss out!

Register before the deadline

If you’d like to join us, the deadline for registrations is 30 May 2022.

You can register to attend, and tell us what size t-shirt you need for the day, by completing our registration form. The form can be found on the Blackpool pride event page.

If you have already registered

If you have already registered, your place is guaranteed and we have a Civil Service Pride t-shirt on order for you. You’ll be contacted by email soon with joining instructions and details of what to expect on the day.

What happens next

Matt and Ross will be coordinating activities on the day. They’ll be in touch with those who have registered soon.

Attend other pride events

We’re attending lots of Pride events across the UK this year. You can find out about all the events, and register to attend, on our Pride topic page.

Introducing Groups

2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

We’re pleased to introduce Groups: a new, more informal way of staying up to date with the work of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and our teams of volunteers.

Groups are email-based distribution lists. You can sign up in minutes, just by sending an email. Once you’re subscribed, you will receive regular emails directly from our volunteers about things you might be interested in. If you change your mind later, you can unsubscribe again just by sending an email.

Groups are different from email alerts

You can already sign up for email alerts via our website. Email alerts are semi-automated emails that notify you when things are added to our website. Groups are different; they include wider topics, informal discussion, and allow a bit more of a two-way conversation.

Our first Group

Our first Group is the “North West Group”, for civil servants who are based in the North West region. This Group is managed by Ross and Matt from our North West local organiser team. We’ll be adding more Groups over time for more regions, nations and project teams.

Join a Group

To find out more, and to subscribe to one of the Groups, visit www.civilservice.lgbt/groups.

Register to attend Civil Service Pride

2022-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Pride events across the UK are back. The Civil Service will be attending Pride events across the UK, led by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network. Registrations are open to attend these events in person.

Register to attend

You can register to attend by completing our registration form.

The registration form is a Google Form. You may not be able to access it from a work device. You can use a personal device to complete the form if you cannot access it from your work device.

Some Pride events place limits on the number of people who can go into each group in their parade. For those events, you will be placed into a lottery and we will contact you 4 weeks in advance of the event to confirm your place.

Locations

All of the locations we are planning to attend are listed on our Pride topic page.

Questions

If you have any questions about our plans for Pride, you can attend our Pride Organisers Forum – dates are listed on our events page – or you can send us an email at info@civilservice.lgbt

Are your network details up to date?

2022-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network maintains a list of departmental and agency LGBT+ networks across government, as well as an internal list of network chairs and volunteers.

These lists get out of date pretty quickly, and that means we can’t easily communicate cross-government messages and you might miss out!

If you’re a chair or committee member of your LGBT+ network, please check our Networks page to see if your contact email address is correct. If it isn’t correct, please email us at info@civilservice.lgbt to let us know.

If you’re not a network chair, but you know your network’s details and they’re not on our list – that’s helpful too! Send us an email to let us know.

Join our volunteer team

2022-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network only achieves what it does because staff volunteer their time to help. They do incredible work; whether it’s our local organisers delivering our social and networking events, or bigger long term projects like organising pride. Many of us are able to do this as our formal ‘corporate contribution’ for a small amount of time each week; more of us still do this in our spare time outside of normal work hours.

Our team has expanded recently as we’ve welcomed new volunteers. That’s great! We still have lots of opportunities to get involved, though.

All our volunteering opportunities are published on our ‘vacancies’ page, but I wanted to highlight a few of the roles we’re hoping to fill as soon as possible.

Our most urgent roles

Vice-chairs for women’s inclusion and ethnic minority inclusion

We want this network to be inclusive of every part of the LGBT+ spectrum. We think the work that has been done over the past few years to establish BiSpace, and now AceSpace, is a fantastic model of how we can do that. We already have work underway to create a space for trans and non-binary staff in the network; we want to do the same for LGBT+ staff who are women, and LGBT+ staff who have a minority ethnicity.

We think it’s important these initiatives are led by those they are intended to support – just like BiSpace and AceSpace – so we’re keen to speak to any LGBT+ women or LGBT+ people who have a minority ethnicity who would be interested in stepping up and developing these programmes. If that’s you, please email me directly; I’d love to chat!

Communications roles

We need some skilled communications professionals to help us re-invigorate our comms work. Blogging, social media, podcasting, strat comms – if you’ve got the skills, again get in touch and I’d love to have a chat about how you could help.

There’s more

As I said above, the roles we’ve got a clear idea for are all on our vacancies page but the opportunities don’t stop there. If you’ve got an idea and the enthusiasm to get going with it, just get in touch. I’d be happy to discuss how you can join the team and take any of these roles or ideas and turn them into something great.

Where we’re headed for Pride 2022

2022-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network is coordinating this year’s nationwide Pride participation for the Civil Service, alongside an online programme of events this summer.

Following a consultation earlier this year, we are pleased to announce that we plan to attend the following pride events across the country. You’ll see further details appear on our website over the coming weeks as we firm up our plans.

Our planned locations

Location	Date
Belfast	30 July 2022
Birmingham	24 September 2022
Blackpool	11 June 2022
Cardiff	To be confirmed
Edinburgh	25 June 2022
Glasgow	16 July 2022
Leeds	7 August 2022
Liverpool	30 July 2022
London	2 July 2022
Manchester	27 August 2022
Newcastle	23 July 2022
Sheffield	To be confirmed
Southampton	27 August 2022

We’ve chosen these locations because you said you wanted us to go to these pride events, and because we have identified local volunteers to lead coordination locally. If you don’t see a location here but you’d like to lead on organising attendance for the Civil Service there please get in touch and join our regular pride organising forum.

Register to attend

Registrations to join the Civil Service at these pride events are now open.

If the local pride event has confirmed a date for their parade, you can register to attend all of these events, or enter a ticket where there are restrictions on the numbers of people who can enter the parade.

Some pride events aren’t yet confirmed and may not go ahead. If they do go ahead, once a date is confirmed we’ll add the event to our Pride event calendar on the topic page. You can pre-register for these events and we’ll email you to confirm the date when we know it.

Please register via the Pride topic page if you’d like to attend.

Keeping PrideON

We’ll be releasing more information regularly; make sure you’re signed up for email alerts and checking the Pride topic page.

We’ll also letting you know about our digital programme of events soon too. Keep checking back for more details.

We look forward to celebrating pride with you, in person or online, later this year.

Join us at our next Leaders of Network forum

2022-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

The Leaders of Networks forum is a regular opportunity for those leading departmental and agency networks to discuss issues across the Civil Service affecting LGBT+ staff.

This meeting is open to:

chairs, vice-chairs or other nominated representatives of departmental or agency LGBT+ Networks
volunteers that are part of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network team

The next quarterly meeting is taking place on 25 April 2022. If you would like to attend, please register online. We’ll send you a calendar invitation closer to the event.

What’s on the agenda

The agenda for each meeting is agreed in advance and circulated directly to attendees.

If you would like to propose an item for a future meeting’s agenda, please email us at info@civilservice.lgbt.

Our new Pride Organising Forum

2022-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network is coordinating this year’s, nationwide Pride participation for the Civil Service, alongside an online programme of events this summer.

We know LGBT+ civil servants and allies always have lots of questions and ideas about what we do for Pride, so we’re creating a new regular chance to get involved.

The Pride Organising Forum is an opportunity for any civil servant who is involved in organising activities for Pride in their department or agency to hear about our plans and help to shape them.

The forum will particularly focus on attendance at physical pride marches and parades across the country, but also on our online programme for 2022.

The meetings will take place every 4 weeks, starting on 14 March 2022. You can register to attend via the events page.

Find out more about pride

Visit our Pride 2022 topic page to find out all the latest information about Pride 2022 in the Civil Service.

Our socials are expanding

2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network has run social and networking events across the UK for more than a decade. Since lockdown restrictions eased last year, we’ve rebooted them in our usual locations. Now we’re adding even more!

All the locations

For the first time, you’ll now be able to attend socials in all of these locations:

Birmingham
Bristol
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Southampton

All of these socials are led by our ‘local organiser’ team.

Join us at the events

If you’d like to attend one of our events: register your information so we can update you of any changes, and then just turn up!

Details of where the events are taking place are always published on our website at www.civilservice.lgbt/events.

Remember to check the specific page a few days before hand for information about the specific venue.

Join the team

If organising this kind of thing is up your alley, why not join the local organiser team? If you’d like to get involved, please contact our Vice-Chair, Ed.

Help us shape our plans for Pride 2022

2022-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Hi, I’m Marc and I lead on Pride for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

A hybrid Pride for 2022

When the pandemic struck in 2020, the Civil Service LGBT+ Network took pride online and led the Civil Service’s first ever, all digital pride season with hundreds of civil servants taking part. Pride is an important part of the LGBT+ calendar and this year we want to come back bigger, prouder and better than ever. That’s why this year, we’re planning a hybrid Pride; with an online programme taking place alongside physical participation across the UK.

Pride is a special occasion for the LGBT+ community where we are able to remember our history, raise awareness of the issues LGBT+ people face, and campaign for equality no matter your sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. It’s a time where we’re able to embrace and shout about our identities with our families, friends and allies and make our voices heard from the past and for the future.

Express your interest for in-person events

We are currently still scoping out what locations we are able to attend in person for Pride 2022. To help us decide which locations are the best for us to attend, please complete our expression of interest form and let us know where you’d most like to take part. Please complete the form by 16 February 2022.

Help us put Pride On again

We’re aiming to continue our digital programme alongside in person events for Pride 2022 so as many colleagues as possible can participate. We need your help to do that. It could be a small contribution like writing a blog post for our website, or a bigger contribution like helping to organise an online social or panel event. If you’d like to help us create this online programme, please email me at marc.fitchett@civilservice.lgbt.

Confirming our plans

Further details, including where we decide to attend pride events in person, will be published in March. Where attendance is restricted due to ticket capacity – for example, at events in London or Manchester – tickets will be allocated on a lottery basis.

Keep up to date

We’ve set up a dedicated Pride topic page on our website. We’ll be adding all the details of our upcoming events and activities when we know them. You can also sign up to get email alerts to keep up to date with the latest news from the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

We can’t wait for Pride this year and look forward to hearing from you. Get in contact with marc.fitchett@civilservice.lgbt if you’re keen to play a big part in this year’s Pride for the Network.

Share your views on the conference for LGBT+ civil servants

2022-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

As trailed in our December post on the conference, we’re keen to hear your views to help shape our plan for the conference.

Today we have launched a consultation that is open for two weeks (closing 28th January 2022), seeking your views on what you want to get out of the conference and what you would like to see.

Take the survey now, to ensure you views are heard.

A survey on the conference for LGBT+ civil servants

Complete this survey.

If you have any enquiries relating to the survey or the conference, please email info@civilservice.lgbt.

New LGBT+ network socials in Birmingham

2022-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Cadbury’s chocolate, the Balti, more canals than Venice… and now the newest location for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s socials!

We will be meeting in Birmingham on the first Thursday of every month, starting in February at the Old Joint Stock which is just next to the cathedral.

I’m looking forward to creating a new local community of LGBT+ civil servants. All are welcome!

Please register in advance for this event. Your registration information will be used to keep you informed of changes to the event and, if it becomes necessary, to help with contact tracing.

Visit the events page for more details

Helping you succeed in your career

2022-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

Hi, I’m Dee and I lead on career development for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, supported by Tom. We’re excited to tell you about our plans to make the career development offer for LGBT+ staff the best in the Civil Service and more importantly, how you can get involved and help!

As someone currently working in HR, I understand the importance of inclusion and enabling people to bring their whole selves to work. The Civil Service seeks to represent the society it serves and it’s important to have LGBT+ staff visible across all levels of the organisation. Research conducted by our predecessor network; the Civil Service Rainbow Alliance, found that many of you felt like you didn’t have access to the same career development opportunities as your straight, cis-gendered counterparts.

In response to this research, we launched our mentoring programme which was designed and delivered by our current chair John Peart. Since it’s launch more than 850 mentors and mentees have registered to take part, over 500 people have been given training and over 1000 mentoring matches have been facilitated. We’ve also picked up a Civil Service Award which recognises the amazing efforts and time dedicated by all those involved.

As we look to 2022, we want to build and expand on this success so that all LGBT+ civil servants, no matter their career aspirations, have opportunities to thrive and become the best version of themselves within the workplace.

We have three priorities for the next 12 months:

deliver the next iteration of the mentoring programme
support the delivery of the LGBT+ Network conference
create a wider career development programme

Deliver the next iteration of the mentoring programme

We’re thrilled that our mentoring programme has helped so many of you and are proud of what we’ve delivered this year. We want to build on our success and work with you to deliver the next iteration of the programme. We will listen to what you have told us about the 2021 programme, what has and hasn’t worked and what we can do to improve it. We’ll refresh the supporting materials based on industry standards and your recommendations. And we’ll aim to re-launch the 2022 programme in April this year, keeping you informed each step of the way.

Support the delivery of the LGBT+ Summer Conference

We’re excited for the LGBT+ Network’s conference which is currently planned to take place both virtually and in person. We’ll work with the conference team to design and deliver a fantastic programme which makes best use of our hybrid approach, delivers interesting sessions, and provides access to relevant resources, both during and afterwards. After all, who doesn’t love a good conference!

Create a wider career development programme

Whilst we’ve got some exciting projects lined up for this year, we don’t want to lose sight of our overall ambition to make our career development offer the best in the Civil Service. We recognise this is the start of our journey and we want to look towards the future to identify relevant opportunities to expand on our offer based on your feedback. We want to engage with Civil Service HR to leverage access to existing data, information and resources. We want to better understand your career development needs and aspirations and we will feed this research into the design and launch of a bespoke programme in 2023.

So what next? Well, we need you to make it all happen! We need you to engage with us, respond to us and support us in realising our ambitions. We are looking for passionate, motivated and committed people to turn our vision into reality. So whether you currently work in HR or fancy an opportunity to develop and flex new skills, whatever your career background, we’d love you to join us in making a positive difference to the careers of 1000s of LGBT+ civil servants.

If you’d like to get involved, you can email me at dee@civilservice.lgbt.

New year. Same network.

2022-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

I hope it’s not too late to say: happy new year!

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network has continued to deliver an incredible amount of activity over the past 12 months. We have even bigger plans for 2022. The new year felt like a good opportunity to reflect on that and provide you with some updates on plans for this year.

What we achieved in 2021

We did lots of work and supported civil servants all over the country, but some of the highlights for me included:

an award winning mentoring programme. We launched the Civil Service’s first mentoring programme for LGBT+ civil servants last year. More than 850 people have taken part across 80 departments and agencies. Last month, the programme won the Developing and Supporting Award at the Civil Service Awards 2021.
celebrating important dates. We celebrated and marked important dates in the LGBT+ calendar throughout the year, including LGBT History Month, Lesbian Visibility Week, Transgender Day of Remembrance and more.
keeping PrideON, again. Our virtual Pride programme – PrideON – returned for a second year with a range of online events taking place throughout the summer.
restarting our socials. Our in-person social events started to return in the latter part of the year. We held successful social and networking events in Bristol, Liverpool, London and Manchester.
building on BiSpace. Our BiSpace programme continued to develop and provide a space for bi+ civil servants, by bi+ civil servants. A new AceSpace also started to take shape, led by civil servants on the asexual and aromantic spectrum.

Our network only achieves this because of people stepping up and taking ownership to deliver everything you see us do. None of this would have been possible without our volunteer team; so thank you to all of them!

What we will do next

This year we hope to achieve even more. In November, we published a forward plan of our work and programmes. We think it’s an ambitious but realistic plan, and we have lots of new team members giving up their time to help us to do it.

I wanted to draw attention to a few of the milestones coming up.

1. Civil Service Pride

We have started to plan a hybrid Pride programme for 2022.

If Pride events resume in their traditional fashion this year, the Civil Service LGBT+ Network intends to join marches and parades across the UK. Alongside that, we will be continuing to host a slightly smaller programme of online events and activities, so that no matter where you live you have something you can get involved with during Pride season.

Our Vice-Chair for Pride, Marc Fitchett, will be leading this work alongside our local organisers and other volunteers. If you want to get involved in organising the in-person or digital programme, please get in touch.

We will also be discussing initial plans at our Leaders of Networks Forum event later this month, which is open to chairs, vice-chairs and committee members of departmental networks.

2. LGBT+ Conference

James Jefferson wrote in December about our plans to create a new annual conference focused on workplace inclusion and career development. Like our pride activity, we are aiming to make this a fully hybrid conference.

We need a lot of help to make this possible and James is putting a team together, so get in touch with James if you want to be involved.

3. Mentoring

Following last year’s mentoring programme success, we’re planning to run it again this year. Our ambition is to re-open the programme again in April 2022 – a little earlier than last year, to avoid the summer holidays. A small team led by our new Vice Chair for Career Development, Dee, is currently being formed around this programme to take over from the work I did last year, so if you’d like to be involved with that, please email Dee directly.

4. Expanding our local presence

Another of our Vice-Chairs, Ed, wrote last month that our local organisers help us to have a local presence and a national influence. We’re looking to double up on volunteers in each region and nation this year, so that we can deliver social and networking opportunities, learning and development opportunities and pride activities in every part of the UK.

Team is already growing. If you want to join them, please email Ed directly.

5. More space for Spaces

Finally, I want to highlight the development of new ‘Spaces’ to join BiSpace and AceSpace this year. Our current programmes have made our network a broader and more inclusive tent, and I hope that the work we will be doing to create similar space for trans and non-binary people (led by Alan Edwards), women, people with minority ethnicities, and allies (led by Leah Cunnah) will expand that great work.

Contact the lead vice chair if you’d like to involve yourself with those programmes of activity. We’re looking for someone to lead our women’s inclusion work in particular at the moment – if you think that should be you, email me directly.

Get involved

I am really excited about all of these things, and the rest of the activity we hope to achieve in our business plan. We can achieve more when everyone pitches in; so if you have the energy and capacity to help, please do contact the relevant lead.

For now, have a great start to 2022 and I hope to see you (in person or virtually) at our events throughout the year.

A conference for LGBT+ civil servants

2021-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

As a community of LGBT+ civil servants, we work better together, we learn from one another and most all, we support each other to be our most inclusive selves. That’s why we’re holding an annual conference for LGBT+ civil servants focused on workplace inclusion and career development, starting in 2022. I’ll be leading a team of volunteers to put together the conference.

It will be a conference for all LGBT+ civil servants and allies to come together to discuss, learn and collaborate. We want to provide you with opportunities to hear from others in our workplace on what they are doing to support workplace inclusion, to learn about strategies and initiatives your colleagues have implemented, and – most of all – to meet one another, whether that is digitally or in-person.

This conference will give you access to LGBT+ civil servants of all grades from multiple departments, allowing for advice on career development, whether that is to achieve a promotion, learn about a different specialism or a change of career path.

This is also your conference. We want you to shape it to get what you want out of it – whether that’s a focus on a particular area; a discussion on something that matters most to you, or just being in a safe space with your peers.

What can you expect?

We’re developing the conference now. Our aim is for the conference to:

be available both digitally and in-person
have an agenda focusing on workplace inclusion and career development featuring speakers from across the Civil Service
be interactive with opportunity for granular discussion
be a safe space for discussion, learning and networking

We need your help

I am pleased to be leading this work stream and look forward to hearing from you what you want to get out of this conference. However, this is not a small task, so I am looking for a team of volunteers to ensure we can maximise the potential of what this conference can be.

We need people with project delivery, communications, administrative or policy experience to make this a success. If you are interested please do get in touch with me at james.jefferson@civilservice.lgbt.

What’s next?

In January 2022, we will consult with Civil Service LGBT+ Network members to hear your ideas on what you would like to gain from this conference. This will help us scope and set the right agenda.

What’s next for BiSpace

2021-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

I am delighted to be stepping into the role of Vice Chair for Bi+ Inclusion and to lead our BiSpace programme, and grateful for the opportunity to lead a fantastic team. I have been a member of the BiSpace team for several years, and am looking forward to working closely with them, with John our Network Chair, and with the other Vice Chairs to deliver the Network’s priorities.

A forward plan for BiSpace

I recently met with the BiSpace Team and we agreed our priorities for the coming year, with a focus on:

education, history and culture
socials and networking
combatting bullying, harassment and discrimination

BiSpace meet-ups

We would like to return to in-person socials, but as ever we will have to keep a close eye on the ever evolving picture with regards to Covid and be mindful of current government guidance. The situation is changing rapidly.

I’m very grateful that I had the chance to meet a couple of others from the network “in real life” for a small but perfectly formed social in London earlier this week just before the work from home guidance resumed. We reflected on how lovely it is just to get the chance to be in the company of other bi+ people.

Regardless of Covid developments we will continue to offer online opportunities for connection, as these can be inclusive for all sorts of reasons. As someone based in the far north I know I appreciate them, as it’s not always easy for me to get to major cities like London. Of course if there are local volunteers willing to lead socials in other cities that is certainly something we would be willing to embrace when the situation improves again, safety and current guidance permitting.

Get involved with BiSpace

Speaking of volunteers, a few of our team have had to move on recently so we are keen to recruit more. If you are interested in helping us to make the Civil Service a more welcoming and inclusive place for bi+ colleagues please do get in touch at sunny.thompson@civilservice.lgbt.

We would love to hear your ideas and have more people to help us run projects.

Our work and programmes

Business plan for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

Read this publication

Volunteer opportunities

Join the Civil Service LGBT+ Network team

Read this publication

Local presence. National influence.

2021-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Hello everyone,

I’m excited and honoured to remain as a Vice Chair for our Civil Service LGBT+ Network. Over the past 2.5 years, you may have worked with me in supporting our regional teams and tasks. I want to thank you for your continuous support!

The three programmes that I feel very passionate about and will be leading on are:

Face-to-face socials and networking
Supporting local delivery
Volunteer deal

Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers, our regional teams (local organisers) are growing from strength to strength. We now have dedicated teams of volunteers covering Scotland, Wales and large parts of England, including London, South East, South West, North East and North West. Our local organisers coordinate between their local department networks, help organise socials and events close to you. They are a vital part of our network.

We have an ambitious plan to expand our teams to cover all parts of the UK. If you are based in Yorkshire and Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England or Northern Ireland and would like to support our network, we are very keen to speak to you. You can get in touch by emailing us at info@civilservice.lgbt.

We are very grateful for our local organisers and volunteers. We are working closely with Civil Service HR teams and the Civil Service LGB&TI Champion and will ensure your hard work and contribution is recognised.

So join us and be part for our exciting journey!

If you would like to volunteer as a local organiser in your area, please email us at info@civilservice.lgbt

Our work and programmes

Business plan for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

Read this publication

Volunteer opportunities

Join the Civil Service LGBT+ Network team

Read this publication

Activating LGBT+ allies across the Civil Service

2021-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

As a network, we think allies are important. That’s why our business plan includes a commitment to develop a new Allies programme.

I’ll be leading work to create that programme and resources that allies across the Civil Service can use to champion LGBT+ inclusion in their workplace.

Starting by listening to you

I want to find out what LGBT+ civil servants want cisgender and heterosexual civil servants to be more aware of and how they can be better allies. I also want to know how you think LGBT+ civil servants can be more supportive to each other.

So, as a first step in creating this programme, I plan to conduct a survey and series of workshops to hear your voices. After that, I will publish a report of the findings alongside a plan of how I and volunteers will work to deliver it. My hypothesis is that a series of resources like fact sheets or blog posts might be helpful; but we’ll be led by the evidence.

In developing these resources, it would be great to have LGBT+ people involved. Where people feel comfortable in doing so, it would be great to hear and share your stories and experiences to help raise awareness.

We’re building an Allies team

I can’t do this all by myself! We’re going to build a team of volunteers, both LGBT+ and allies from an array of departments, to put this programme and resources together. Our goal as a team will be to increase awareness of LGBT+ issues and allyship that can be shared widely across the Civil Service.

As an LGBT+ ally myself, I am passionate about equality and diversity and want to improve other people’s knowledge and understanding to help raise awareness and challenge stereotypes. It would be great to have like-minded volunteers onboard.

I don’t want to just create resources for allies created by allies, I really want input from our LGBT+ members too. Whether that be filling out the survey, coming to a workshop, volunteering or simply sharing the resources. Everyone can help make sure that our new programme engages and activates our allies to help make the Civil Service a great place to work for LGBT+ people.

Get in touch

I really want allies on board from across a variety of Departments so that resources can be shared in non-LGBT+ spaces to reach people who would not usually engage with resources on allyship. I’d also like to hear from allies and non-LGBT+ people what they would find useful to help educate and challenge them more.

If you’d like to get involved with this team, please email me at leah.cunnah@civilservice.lgbt.

Trans and non-binary inclusion listening sessions

2021-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

Hi, I’m Alan Edwards, my pronouns are they/he, and I’m the Civil Service LGBT+ Network’s new Vice Chair for trans and non-binary inclusion.

Creating space for trans and non-binary members

For the past couple of years, I’ve helped to run our BiSpace programme for bi+ civil servants. It’s made a huge difference to how welcomed I feel as a bi+ person in this Network. I want that same sense of community to be available for trans and non-binary people in the Civil Service too.

Learning from what works with BiSpace, we want to make the Civil Service and the Civil Service LGBT+ Network the best place to work as a trans or non-binary person.

I want to hear from our members, and indeed any civil servant who is trans or non-binary, to help shape this work. We will be working closely with a:gender to do this.

Join our listening sessions

I will be holding three listening sessions over the next month for you to share your views with me.

Some of the topics I would like to explore during these events will be:

awareness of the different types of events and activities carried out by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and a:gender
whether people feel included in the events organised by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and a:gender
is there anything not currently being done by the Civil Service LGBT+ Network and a:gender that we ought to be doing

The events will take place on the following dates:

Thursday 2 December 2021, 17:00 to 18:00 – Virtual
Wednesday 8 December 2021, 14:00 to 16:00 – in person, London
Tuesday 14 December 2021, 12:00 to 13:00 – Virtual

The virtual events will be very informal, so please feel free to join and leave at any point.

For the in-person event in London on 8 December you will need to be registered as a visitor to 100 Parliament Street and be escorted through the building if you do not have an existing building pass.

If you are unable to make these events but would like to share your views please feel free to email me.

Following the listening sessions I will draft a trans and non-binary inclusion plan in the new year, which will be published on our website.

Restarting the Leaders of Networks forum

2021-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network is both a network of individual members and a network of networks. The structure of the Civil Service – which is made up for more than two dozen separate departments and more than 300 non-departmental bodies – means every organisation is different. They have different policies, procedures and culture. Having a local network is vital to ensure there is a constant link between LGBT+ staff on the ground and the management of every organisation.

As a cross-government network, our role is to add unique value for local networks and ensure we don’t duplicate their efforts. Our ‘Leaders of Networks forum’ is one way we do that. It’s a regular chance for those running local departmental and agency networks to come together and discuss shared interests.

The meetings have been on pause for a while during the pandemic; but I’m determined to restart them and ensure networks have that opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other.

It’s for chairs, vice chairs or committee members

The Leaders of Networks forum isn’t open to everyone; as the name implies, it’s for those who are involved with running and leading their local departmental or agency network.

It doesn’t have to be the network chair who attends. You can send a vice-chair or other committee member if you like. You can send more than one person too, if you want to.

The agenda is shaped around you

I want these rebooted meetings to be laser-focused on issues or concerns networks are facing. Whilst we intend to have standing updates from the cross-government network team and from the Civil Service Inclusive Practice team, every meeting will also have plenty of time to focus on the things coming up across departments.

If you have an agenda item you want to raise for our January meeting, please email me directly, and I’ll see if I can squeeze it into the time available.

Dates for your diary

The next Leaders of Networks forum will take place in January. We will then host the meetings on a quarterly basis from there on out: in April, July and October.

The dates and times for each meeting have already been scheduled, and you find the full list on our events page.

You’ll need to register to attend each meeting, so make sure you complete the registration form. I hope to see lots of networks at our meeting in January.

What we’re planning to do

2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

It’s been just over a month since I took over as Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, and it’s been a busy one! I’ve been working with our volunteer team to put together a new plan for the Network, through to December 2023.

You can read the plan in full on our website. We’ll be adding to the plan over time, and using the same document to report on our progress.

I wanted to use this post to explain the focus of the plan and to ask for your help in making it happen.

A plan that’s focused and ambitious

The Civil Service LGBT+ Network engages more than 2,000 civil servants in its work. We reach you through simple things like our newsletters, or more involved things like our events or programmes. In line with our mission statement and objectives, our plan for the next couple of years is focused on three things:

building inclusive communities of LGBT+ civil servants across the country
helping LGBT+ civil servants develop in their career
acting as a centre of expertise about the experiences of LGBT+ civil servants

The plan includes commitments to develop bespoke programmes for under-represented groups, engage allies, hold an annual workplace conference, reboot our social and networking opportunities and more.

A plan that’s realistic

With an ambitious plan and 2,000 members, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important thing about us: we’re all doing this as volunteers, on top of our day jobs.

We don’t have paid staff. We don’t have a budget. Everything we do is, to a large extent, a lucky confluence of skills and timing.

What you’ll see in this plan is people coming forward to own things they know they can deliver. It is ambitious in what we are setting out to achieve but it is also realistic about how much we can take on at once.

That also means we’re likely to say “no” to things more often, especially when we know that we don’t have a volunteer to take on the work. And that’s where you come in!

Help us to make this happen

This plan is not an exhaustive list of everything we intend to do. It’s the things we want to try to do today based on the volunteer capacity we have.

If you’re reading the plan and thinking to yourself: “why doesn’t it include that thing I care about?”, the answer is simple. No one has volunteered to do it yet!

Everything we do is volunteer led – so if someone doesn’t volunteer, it doesn’t get done.

If you’d like to help with a project we’ve listed in our plan or you’ve got your own idea you’d like to take forward, contact one of the vice-chairs or contact me directly.

If you’re not sure what you’d like to get involved with, we’ve also created a page where you can see specific roles we need help with.

So get involved! This is your Network, and things will only get done if we all pitch in.

Our work and programmes

Business plan for the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

Read this publication

Volunteer opportunities

Join the Civil Service LGBT+ Network team

Read this publication

A message from the new Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

We’ve got work to do.

The Civil Service is an inclusive, welcoming and open place to work for LGBT+ staff. For many, your identity is no barrier to getting on with the job and progressing your career.

But that isn’t true for everyone, and we still have a way to go. Whether it’s bullying, harassment and discrimination, career progression, or simply representation across the Civil Service; there is still work to do.

I’m delighted to now lead this network. I want our work to help the Civil Service become the best employer it can be for LGBT+ people; an employer that every LGBT+ civil servant can say they are proud to work for, and proud to be themselves as part of.

I officially took over as Chair last Friday. I wanted to share a few thoughts about my priorities, and what you can expect from the network in the coming weeks and months.

What happens next

During the election, I said there was a number of things I wanted to focus on as chair. Those included:

learning and development: making sure the mentoring programme can run again next year, and planning an annual Civil Service LGBT+ conference
bullying and harassment: creating an anti-bullying campaign and working with the permanent secretary champion to develop cross-government policy responses
the new normal: re-introducing our regular socials, developing new digital events, and creating a new online space for LGBT+ civil servants
expertise and advice: providing better data and resources for networks and organisations on the experiences fo LGBT+ staff
making the network work: building on BiSpace with new programmes for LGBT+ women and ethnic minority staff, implementing new transparency mechanisms about the network’s work, and improving the deal for our volunteers

That’s a lot of stuff to get done – so my first priority is going to be in putting together a sensible plan, and making sure we can deliver it. We will need help to make all this happen – so look out for opportunities to get involved over the next few weeks too.

Whilst that planning is happening, the existing work of the network continues; in fact, some of the priorities I’ve noted above are already starting to take shape.

Mentoring programme

Our mentoring programme has been a big success already. More than 800 people have taken part in the scheme so far. I’m delighted to confirm today that the mentoring programme will be back next year, thanks in large part to the efforts of Jonathan Kerr.

Jonathan is helping us to build a new digital tool that will make our mentor matching process much faster; which means that we can run the programme more often.

Reintroducing our socials

Our in-person social events have been on hold since the start of the pandemic. Following some trial events over the summer in a few locations, I’m pleased to announce that our usual programme will resume in London starting this week, thanks to our local organiser team.

We will obviously keep this under review depending on the prevailing public health advice, but expect us to rotate around Westminster and Soho on the first Thursday of every month.

I’ll be working with our volunteers across the UK to see if we can restart socials at other locations in the coming weeks too.

I don’t want to lose the great work the network has done during the pandemic to make online events great either. Our PrideON programme continues online, with a ‘Create your own Pride flag’ workshop on 15 October, and I’ll be asking our volunteer team to look at developing a new programme of online-only events to compliment our in-person programme.

Some operational logistics

Our network has gotten too big to be supported by some of the online tools we use for free to keep in touch with our members, like our newsletter. I’m doing lots of boring back-end stuff at the moment to make sure we can all keep in touch online.

Finally, you might have noticed we refreshed our website this past weekend as a first step to give the network a fresh lick of paint as our new team takes shape.

A few thank yous

Before I wrap up, I wanted to thank Kate Hughes for her years of service to this Network, first as Vice-Chair and latterly as Chair. She has steered us through a period of immense uncertainty and made the Network a success despite the global pandemic. Her impact on the network will be felt for many years to come, and I know in her new role she will continue to champion the experience of LGBT+ staff.

I also wanted to thank Jordon Zaman, who has stepped down as one of our vice-chairs this week. Jordon’s contribution to the Network has been excellent, and I know his presence will be missed in the team.

Thank you also to Alan Edwards, who was my opponent in the recent Chair’s election. Whoever won, the network would have been in safe hands, and I’m sure Alan will continue to play an active role in the network, particularly with our BiSpace programme.

We’ve got work to do

This is a very exciting opportunity for me to lead the Network, particularly at this moment as we re-emerge from the uncertainty of COVID-19.

As you will see from this blog post, lots of work is already underway, there’s a lot planned too. I hope that you will get involved to help make this programme of activity happen. We’ve got work to do!

Network Chair Election Results

2021-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

I’m pleased to announce that John Peart is elected into the role of Chair of the Civil Service LGBT+ Network.

John has a wealth of experience in LGBT+ issues and has been a volunteer for the network in various capacities since 2013. If you would like to know more about him visit his election statement. John will officially take over from me today but I will still be around for the next couple of weeks as we do an in-flight handover.

My final thought

It has been a privilege and a pleasure to lead this network, thank you all for your input and support. I’ll leave you with one final request which echoes the post I wrote a few weeks ago announcing that I was standing down.

This network exists for all of us, but it can’t survive on the efforts of a handful of people. There is an incredible amount of work going on in the background to make things happen and for that to continue we need members to volunteer their time and skills. Tell John what you want and need from your network, but then go one small step further and help him to make that happen.

Civil Service LGBT+ Network

Chairs Eye View June

BUSINESSiQ Award Update

Pride 2025 – The Season Is Almost Here

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Allies Event at the DEC

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Chair’s Eye View - February 2025

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The Free to be Me Exhibition at Preston Park Museum Stockton-on-Tees

The Free to be Me Exhibition at Preston Park Museum Stockton-on-Tees

Support Statement

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Chair’s Eye View - December 2024

Civil Service LGBT+ Network Book Club

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Pride 2024 - Registrations Remain Open

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2024 LGBT+ mentoring programme: deadline extended

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Local Organising with the Civil Service LGBT+ Network

New year. Future you: Our mentoring programme returns for 2024

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Mentoring exclusively for and by LGBT+ civil servants

It’s speed mentoring leading to long-term mentoring

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Pride 2023 Review

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Pride 2024

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Launching our new LGBT+ Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination Reporting Tool

What is bullying and harassment?

Report incidents of bullying, harassment or discrimination

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Election 2023: announcing the winner

Handover and what happens next

Contact the co-chairs

Creating the unofficial history of LGBT+ inclusion in the Civil Service

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20 years of making the Civil Service better for LGBT+ people

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