50 years of Pride!
Hey Stars!
50 years of Pride!
Wow I remember my first every pride when I was 26, I had met my first boyfriend and was amazed at the splendour of being free to be on the tube and to hold his hand and to kiss him openly along Oxford Street to be among my fellow LGBTQ+ Stars and all during the AIDs epidemic as it was called then, having a breath of real happiness, in a dark time in our world then, and here we are now 32 years later and boy have I seen some changes!
Now with my present partner in my life, it is easier to hold him and kiss him and for him to show his love for me in public, but I am lucky, as Iive near London, if my partner showed the affection he shows me in public from where he is originally he would be jailed or worse and definitely rejected by his family, so I am blessed to be free but will continue to remind others that we are the lucky ones.
In my early career I was "allowed" to be "Out in my Career" and yet I still had to deal with discrimination, become a subject of curiosity and even was asked to become more "camp" to be accepted and oh ! the questions I had about my sexual habits was crazy!
Did it stop me, no of course not I will always be me and I learned from this to help others who ever got into this situation, you know me Stars I am Mr Positive and I will always help:)
I also have had the honour to meet so many wonderful Talent from all parts of our LGBTQ+ community here in the UK and around the world and placed many of them in great places that had early adoption of Diversity principles. They were brave too, as they went to these companies and still remained true to themselves and made massive impacts on the companies, the cultures and grew in their careers to become Leaders in our community and it is wonderful to be a part of that journey and many are true friends now.
I was also involved to change the law for international gay partners to make "common-in-law" relationships equal in the UK. The law then stated "spouse" yet through Pride awareness and couples like myself fighting in courts, we challenged this and changed it too "partner" for the future :)
Its heartwarming now to see Gay Marriages with international partners :) I am so proud of this achievement and the involvement to make this happen
So 50 Pride years of fighting for rights in the world and in the work place still carries on, and I will continue on, placing amazing LGBTQ+ into our companies with my business partner and I and he is getting married next year to his international partner, Amaze, this makes my job at Superstars even more relevant and important than ever, I will always stand for Pride, enjoy the celebration at home or in town and always hold my partners hand and know I was one of many that made it real for him to kiss me on the cheek and tell me he loves me !
Thanks Gay Pride you always Shine to me, you are indeed a Superstar in my life x Be Fabulous Stars as you know you are :) x