Celebrating Pride Month at Unibuddy
June is here and the sun has finally decided to make an appearance so we’re excited to kick off the month. Not only does June mark the beginning of Summit season here at Unibuddy, we’ve also turned the page of the calendar to welcome Pride Month — a chance to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and, as a company, spend time learning together about important social history.
At Unibuddy, our aim is to forge a more inclusive community — one that fosters a sense of belonging and feels like the right fit for every person inside of it. 10% of our Buddies identify as LGBTQ+, and Pride Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate the positive changes happening, but also reflect on the history that LGBTQ+ folk have gone through. It’s a crucial pillar of our diversity mission.
For a moment, I’d like to take my HR hat off as Head of People at Unibuddy, and instead speak as an employee and member of the LGBTQ+ community. It means a lot to me to be working in such a diverse company with a culture that encourages transparency and provides opportunities to learn.
Growing up as a gay man, I had no role models who identified as LGBTQ+. Zero. Zilch. Even fictional characters.
Everything I was seeing and hearing was all heteronormative. From Disney movies to prime time television, there were next to no gay role models on screen or in books.
Existing in this space meant that I found it difficult to find or see myself fitting in anywhere. I found that I never fit the traditional stereotype of a ‘boy.’ I didn’t like sports much — of those that I did do, I enjoyed figure skating the most.
Growing up, I never could relate to other boys/males, and it was only in high school that I made a male friend. This meant I was a prime, stereotypical ‘gay boy,’ which I was incessantly bullied for throughout those formative years.
The unfortunate reality is that I had an incredible amount of internalised homophobia as a result, and despite my best efforts, I don’t think I am still fully rid of it still to this day.
When I was younger, it manifested itself as my password ‘iamnotgay’ to MSN, as if chanting that to myself internally was going to change things.
Today, I have to constantly work toward unlearning this habit when I worry about ‘looking gay’ in photos or even worse when I am walking in an area where just the assumption of me being gay may result in me being ridiculed or possibly attacked. I still think that Panti Bliss captures exactly how I feel in a speech that was recorded in a Theatre in Ireland, I relate to so much of what she says (CW: explicit).
So when people ask me ‘What does Pride mean to you?’ I get overwhelmed with emotion and am immediately transported back to the first London Pride I ever attended.
I remember so vividly, walking up Waterloo Place (towards Piccadilly Circus) with a new friend who asked me to come. There was this excitement in the air, people gathered and crowds draped in multicoloured flags.
No one had said anything to me. I had barely interacted with anyone, but the feeling was overwhelming. I was not alone. I belonged somewhere. I could fit in. It had been a journey, and still is, but Pride is a moment in the year when I get to educate myself about other people’s lived experiences within the community, and also celebrate myself and those LGBTQ+ folk around me that helped me in my later years to come to terms with my sexuality.
As a white, gay male, I do have the most privilege within the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and I want to use that voice to make change and fight for equality across the community. I know that I have shared a journey with LGBTQ+ BIPOC and others with marginalized identities, but I will never share in their unique experiences.
To bring it full circle, when I was invited to join Unibuddy it was small with only five Buddies but at the time, all-male (don’t worry, it’s far from it now!). My immediate thought, which might surprise people, was ‘Will I fit in?’ because I never did with the males at school.
I did. And I was helped to feel like I did by all of the amazing Buddies within the company. We’ve celebrated Pride Month ever since I arrived, and I’ve always felt supported and grateful for that amendment to the culture here. To do that every year means everything to me — not as Head of People or any of my former roles, but as an LGBTQ+ person at Unibuddy.
To put back on my Head of People hat, it’s exciting to see all of our activities for Pride Month coming together. As a company, we’ll be celebrating and learning with a series of talks and events for all of our Buddies to attend.
These talks range from the history of Pride to the importance of pronouns and feature both our own Buddies as speakers as well as an external session with guest speakers.
These conversations are incredibly important for us to have. We want all of our team at Unibuddy to feel equal, so providing spaces to learn and educate on topics such as transphobia, homophobia, or the role pronouns can play in creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace for all of our Buddies. It is crucial for us to take on these initiatives and achieve a more diverse and accepting company culture.
We’ll also be changing our logo across all of our social media channels for the month of June. Our amazing design team has produced a Pride version of the Unibuddy logo, which will proudly sit on all of our profiles to promote the inclusivity that we want all of our Buddies to feel.
I joined Unibuddy because of the mission of giving everyone a voice to share their own experiences, and this Pride Month I’m proud to be sharing mine, not just for the students and universities but for our company and all our Buddies.
