A video message from Alan Evans, the LGBT Champion at HMRC
Alan Evans says "the experience of the lockdown has been a reminder of the fragility of those hard-won [LGBT+] rights."
A video message from Alan Evans, the LGBT Champion at HMRC, for Civil Service PrideON.
Transcript:
Hello, my name is Alan Evans. I’m the Director General for Legal Services at HMRC and I’m also really proud to be the Department’s LGBT Champion.
It’s more than 30 years now since my first pride march in London and we’ve seen huge advances since that time. In the rights, the respect, the visibility of LGBT People, not least in the Civil Service, but the experience of the last couple of months, the experience in particular of the lockdown has been a reminder of the fragility of those hard-won rights.
There’s the physical isolation which we’ve all been experiencing which can compound the emotional isolation that many of us have felt at different times in our lives, and then there’s the coming together of the home and work environment in one space, which has not been straight forward for everyone.
We won’t be able to march this year, but voices won’t go unheard and it’s why I’m delighted to be supporting the Civil Service LGBT Network’s PrideON campaign. They’ll be events and other activities running throughout June. Please do look out for them, please get involved. It’s important and let’s not forget this is a celebration. Pride is a celebration and so they’ll be a lot of fun events as part of that as well.
Beyond that, please do keep reaching out in your workplaces and in your communities to support others and keep campaigning in big and small ways. That sense of community that has brought us together and brought us so far is now more important than ever.
Happy Pride.
PrideON is a programme of digital events and content across the month of June to help celebrate Pride in the Civil Service. Do you have a digital event or content that you want us to share? Contact us.