British Veterinary LGBT+ Society celebrates 10 years of supporting, campaigning and educating

The BVLGBT+ society began 10 years ago with the aim to build a community for friendship and support, to advocate for its members, promote equality and to work with others to campaign and educate the profession on LGBTQ+ issues.

This year, we will be attending marches in London and Glasgow as we celebrate Pride month, an important event in the annual LGBTQ+ calendar around the globe that commemorates the 1969 Stonewall uprising.

Pride month has come to mean different things - a mix of celebration, parading our visibility, and continuing demands for equality and acceptance. It is also a time for members of the LGBTQ+ community to assemble, reflect on our equality gains and losses, but also to continue to protest for our right to live authentic lives. Before us, brave pioneers from our community fought for rights and freedoms at a time when hostility toward LGBTQ+ people was extreme and legally sanctioned. Yet in the contemporary moment, when LGBTQ+ rights are being rolled back in some contexts and the threat of invisibility looms large, Pride is and always will be a call to action.

As a case in point, the recent Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex as biological has brought immense anxiety and uncertainty to some of the most marginalised sections of our community. As such, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our trans, non-binary and intersex friends and colleagues, to protest for the protection of their rights.

After Pride, when we return to our communities, homes and workplaces, we shall look to our families, neighbours, our employers and colleagues in the hope that they will treat us fairly and equitably; but there will always be those who oppose us. It may be a disapproving scowl when you hold your same sex partner's hand in public, a homophobic slur, an employer who refuses to recognise your pronouns, someone who takes exception to your choice of bathroom, or a group that excludes you from a sport that is essential to your health and well-being.

Within our profession there are many employers and colleagues who remain committed allies, but discrimination and exclusion against LGBTQ+ people in the veterinary profession persists. To combat this, leaders in our profession must support equality advances and educate others and themselves about ignorance and workplace prejudice.

Together our allies have a vital role to play, working with LGBTQ+ colleagues to achieve equality gains and helping them to live authentic lives in and outside work.

To LGBTQ+ members of our profession and especially students and young graduates who might be struggling, know that you are not alone and that support is available. There are many in our community who have experienced and overcome the same pressures and worries. Together we are stronger and more able to create opportunities for LGBTQ+ people within our profession to not just survive but thrive and flourish.