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Challenges and breakthroughs in social impact
Since Opencast became a B Corp this year, our social impact team has continued to push forwards. Head of Social Impact Stef Monaco reflects on the jou...
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As part of our commitment, we are proud to be part of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme – the leading employers’ programme in the UK for ensuring workplaces are truly inclusive.
The Stonewall charity is named after the New York gay bar where in 1969 riots marked a turning point for what was then called the ‘gay liberation’ movement – but which was broader as it included working-class, trans and lesbian women of colour.
Gay power marches followed that effectively turned into the annual Pride month that we see today, and the Gay Liberation Front followed, demanding sexual liberation, reproductive rights and economic freedom. In 1970 a GLF was established in London and the Pride movement became global.
UK LGBT rights came to prominence following the 1967 decriminalisation of sexual activity between men in England and Wales – though it took until 2006 for equalities legislation to come into force and 2010 until the Equality Act extended the ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians.
As the movement has grown, a wider definition has emerged beyond 'gay and lesbian', so that the ‘LGBTQ+’ term used today covers a wider group – lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer, with the '+' a symbol meaning 'and others' to include people of all identities.
Yet despite the huge progress and legal change, discrimination against LGBTQ+ people continues, particularly in the workplace, and in processes like job interviews and job descriptions. Inclusion is not yet a given.
At Opencast we are working hard to become a more inclusive employer, including for LGBTQ+ people. We agree with Stonewall that "inclusion drives better individual, business and organisational outcomes". This thinking informed our decision last year to join the 850+ organisations creating LGBTQ+ inclusive workplaces as Stonewall champions.
We want all our employees to feel welcome, respected and represented in the workplace. Most recently, we have reviewed the inclusion statements that go with our recruitment advertising and also at our employment policies, including a new transitioning policy and an updated dignity at work policy.
Two other initiatives demonstrate our support for LGBTQ+ communities.
Finally, our inclusive change group suggests that staff use a new feature from business social network LinkedIn that allows them to add she/her, he/him, they/them pronouns to their LI profiles to help show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Opencast will continue its support for LGBTQ+ communities in its work in the year ahead, to demonstrate that we are making real change to our working culture and hiring processes, putting money where our mouth is on community support – and showing that we are making genuine progress in ensuring the company is a more inclusive place to work for all.
Stonewall blog: Pride is still a protest – so let’s speak up
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