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Editor's Notes

• #2: The official name of my talk tonight is Who ya gonna be? (Originally inspired by Ghostbusters, not just bad English) but my talk has changed a lot since I wrote that title. I realised, how can I tell you who to be if I don’t know who you are and what diversity means to you. Diversity. Quite a topic to fit into 1 evening, let alone 15 minutes. There is a quote I read from Randa Abdel-Fattah, that I really related to when researching for this talk.
• #3: Diversity is all around us, it’s with us, so…
• #4: What is it that makes you diverse?
• #5: What makes you unique?
• #6: Your eyes, gender, hair etc. Your answers to these are what makes you diverse, and these are just a few of the million attributes that make up who you are. Some of these are choices and personal preferences, some are physical and some are a lot deeper than that. Some things you cannot choose. You can’t wake up and decide, yep I’m going to be tall today.
• #7: And then grow a foot and a half. When I was writing this talk I thought to myself…
• #8: What boxes do I tick?
• #9: I am female In the tech industry this instantly makes me a minority.
• #10: Women make up just under half the workforce but hold just 25% of the jobs in technical or computing fields. Even Google's workforce is only 30% female This can be very intimidating.
• #11: I am under 25 Age discrimination is huge in tech, and I know being under 25 means I’m on the favourable side of it but I still find this ageism shocking and just plain scary. Its almost as if there is a window that doesn’t open till you’re a certain age or of certain experience and then quickly slams in your face when that experience has given you wrinkles.
• #12: These are the average age of employees at top tech companies. That’s your window.
• #13: My next tick is not something that is a choice. I have small feet. The average shoe size in the UK has increased from 4 to 6 in just two decades. But I can wear kids shoes, so woo no VAT. Oh yeah, my next one is also not a choice
• #14: I’m a lesbian. To be honest, even if I could choose I wouldn’t change it. I love being gay, I love being part of the LGBT community and it is a huge part of my life. Ask anyone who knows me. I am, in fact, a supergay.
• #16: When you do identify as LGBT, it becomes this huge defining attribute of your life. But why is that? Why is it, after seeing this talk, I can almost guarantee when my name is mentioned, the first thing you will think is SUPERGAY. There is so much more to me
• #17: To name but a few! But once you have told someone you are gay, its like that’s all you are. And that is all those that discriminate see too. Over a quarter of LGBT people alter their behaviour to hide their sexual orientation to avoid being the victim of hate crime.
• #18: I’m lucky, I’ve never experienced bullying or discrimination for being gay. Woo equality is here, we did it! We can stop now. NO. Homophobia and LGBT discrimination is still an issue. Just because I have never experienced it, I’m not running around in a bubble thinking the world is fixed.
• #19: I have seen friends go through heart breaking experiences when coming out, I know people that have still not come out because they are paralysed by the fear of judgement, rejection and homophobia. It is not uncommon, in fact I’m the anomaly. I have witnessed homophobic slurs shouted in public, I have listened to stories from those who have experienced blatant and horrific discrimination because they are gay But I have no heart wrenching story to tell you. Have I not experience homophobia because I’m so tough looking peeps are like, no way, not starting on her? Probably not …
• #20: People don’t look at me and instantly think “LESBIAN.” Is that really the only reason I have not been subject to homophobia? Just because I like my hair long and I like to wear dresses it is presumed I am straight. I do not fit the stereotypes.
• #21: Stereotypes are useless. They dehumanise people and add further barriers for LGBT+ people They promote bullying, discrimination, homophobia and bigotry. Bigots love stereotypes. It is a lot easier to hate a faceless stereotype than it is an actual person. But there are infinite ways to be gay.
• #22: It is just one element of my identity so how could we possibly be all the same? It’s true a lot of gay men like Beyonce, and a lot of gay women have short hair but you can’t apply that to the whole demographic. We all have different stories.
• #23: The average age for coming out is 17. At that age, you think you aren’t but you are still a kid. Me personally, I was 18, and I wish everyones coming out story was the same as mine. I don’t remember coming out, I think it was a gradual thing. I never had to sit any of my family down and have a heart to heart. I just started bringing a girl home, and she’s never left. It was fine. If anyone did have a problem they never confronted me about it. Because, guess what
• #24: Its fine to be gay, just like its fine to be straight or bisexual, or asexual, or anything. And it’s fine to be those things anywhere, even at work.
• #25: Research done by the stonewall charity found: 1 in 5 have experienced verbal bullying from colleagues, customers or service users because of their sexual orientation 1 in 8 would not feel confident reporting homophobic bullying in their workplace. and over a quarter of lesbian, gay and bisexual workers are not open to colleagues about their sexual orientation. They are not out at work.
• #26: So why should the LGBT community even be out at work? Work is work, that database doesn’t care what your into you’re never going to come across some homophobic PHP So does it really matter? In short, yes It is such hard work to maintain a straight persona. CLICK
• #27: People in the closet spend an awful lot of time and energy omitting the truth and playing the pronoun game “they, them, their” They feel less confident, less motivated, and they are unable to use their personal experiences to develop and give creative solutions at work. Not being able to engage with others honestly about who they are has an effect on their relationships This leads to them being seen as untrustworthy, unfriendly or an unwilling ‘team player’. Imaging spending all day pretending not to have the accent you do have. Sounds like a lot of effort right? But that’s what people do.
• #28: They are hiding. People hide. We all try to conform. All of us, not just the LGBT community. We believe conformity is critical to our lives, our social status and our long term career advancement, we won’t be taken seriously if we have too pink hair, or too many tattoos or are too gay. In 2013 Deloitte University surveyed over 3,000 employees in organisations spanning ten different industries and 61% admitted to covering up least one aspect of themselves in order to fit in more at work And of the Lesbian Gay and Bisexual employees surveyed, 83% admitted to hiding at least one aspect so they would not appear “too gay” at work. We are all afraid of being too something
• #29: I hate it when people use this word like that. It should not be used to describe anyone.
• #30: If someone ever told me I was too gay, I definitely wouldn’t be too friendly with them anymore. I mean, what does that even mean? If I’m too gay, are you too straight?
• #31: It makes no sense. You can’t be too much of anything if thats what makes you, you.
• #43: How can you be too much of yourself? You should be as much you as you can be all of the time, and let others do the same.