CHANGING THE GAME
By Ali Donnelly Reflecting on personal growth as well as the progress all around us always feels appropriate as Pride celebrations get underway every year. I left Cork for London in 2007, and though I was comfortably out, including at work which was then as a reporter at the Evening Echo, when it comes to LGBTQ+ inclusion, much has changed for the better both in Ireland and in my life in the fifteen years since. When I left, same-sex marriage was not yet legal in either England or Ireland, and though I was excited to be moving to a city where I hoped I could be my whole self all the time, marriage felt like a distant dream. Fast forward a few years and in 2014 my wife to be and I were planning a civil partnership before the UK government’s policy was accelerated through the legislation process and we ended up becoming one of the first lesbian couples here to marry under the new law just a few weeks later. We live a life here where we are comfortably ourselves and where there Is no novelty for our two daughters that they have two mums – as it happens so do lots of their friends. When I talk about our lives though, I try not to sound flippant. As a teenager the very idea that I might not just be able to marry a woman but meet one who I might be able to date seemed totally unrealistic. Cork, for me then, was not a place where I looked around and saw out female role models, rather a place I worried that I could never truly be myself.
As I moved into my 20s that changed significantly – my time at UCC and more generally within a supportive and fun LGBTQ+ community in the city, meant even when I left, I knew that Cork was a place where I could mostly be me and it’s been brilliant to see progress on so many fronts since. When Mary White, a former colleague of mine at the Evening Echo, told her about her involvement in Work with Pride, Ireland’s first LGBT+ Professional Business Network, I thought it was fantastic. For even though my colleagues in my early 20s in Cork were largely supportive when I came out, there were limited opportunities then to discuss what creating an LGBTQ+ inclusive workplace could look like or discuss what sort of education and support was required to ensure people were truly comfortable in being themselves at work. Back then, as was also true almost everywhere else, you were simply just expected to get on with it. In the years since, I’ve seen how the world of work has changed.
I’ve worked in several interesting organisations across both government and sport in London and have been part of a variety of approaches to creating inclusive workplaces. Some are better than others, but the best employers understand why everyone who works for their organisation should feel welcome, respected and represented at work. They know that inclusion drives better individual and business outcomes. They do the work in understanding what inclusion looks like and what might need to change, and they understand that people who feel confident enough to be themselves at work, are more likely to feel properly part of every aspect of that work. And that when this happens, everyone benefits. In my current role as an Executive Director at Sport England, diversity and inclusion is a significant focus of our work internally, while externally we focus hard on trying to ensure that everyone, whatever their sexuality or gender identity should feel welcome to be
themselves and take part in sport and physical activity. We’re currently working on an LGBTQ+ action plan which will help us to tackle barriers that stop many from taking part in sport and help us to develop effective tools to make change. I’ve also worked in places where inclusion work felt like box- ticking, less authentic and contrived. So it’s brilliant to see the work that Mary and her team are doing and I know I would have benefitted from it greatly when I first came out. Speaking of sport, I’ve recently written a book about the sport that I love – women’s rugby – where I reflected that while sport can be a place of fear for LGBTQ+ people, that some sports can offer safe spaces for women particularly to be themselves. There are countless pioneering gay women who have made their mark in women’s rugby, either in setting the game up and fighting authorities to do so, or as out players like the former Irish flyhalf Nora Stapleton or high profile out referees like Joy Neville - and I love being part of a sport which welcomes women and empowers them to be totally themselves. Finally, thanks to everyone who works so hard to make Cork LGBT Pride the success it is today. I look forward to celebrating in person! Ali Donnelly is an Executive Director at Sport England and was formerly an Official Spokesperson at Downing Street. Her book (Scrum Queens – The Story of Women’s Rugby) is out at the end July.
www.corkpride.com
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