Symbol of Pride
Thank you to everyone who joined the more than 30,000 people who attended last weekend’s Pride in London and UK Black Pride (UKBP) events.
Colleagues from across the country celebrated the UK’s largest and most diverse pride by donning their ‘Delivering with Pride’ t-shirts and dancing behind our very own fully customised Pride-themed lorry through central London, demonstrating just how important diversity and inclusion is to the business.
Our incredibly popular rainbow postbox postcards once again proved a huge hit with colleagues handing out an estimated 50,000 to members of the public, who were eager to collect the full set of six.
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Pride events provide a platform for the LGBT+ community to raise awareness of LGBT+ issues, and campaign for the freedom to live their lives on a genuinely equal footing.
Postwoman Tanya Wing from Yorkshire distribution centre, said: ‘I find being a part of Royal Mail at Pride in London enormously exciting and vibrant. It was great to make so many new friends!
‘We ran out of the postcards we were handing out as so many people wanted them. It was an overwhelming experience, especially as so many people were applauding and supporting us!’
Driver Joe Henderson from Southampton mail centre distribution, said: ‘I was so proud to see so many of my colleagues from around the country get together and do our community proud in our capital city.’
Watch our 2018 Pride in London highlights video below.
Leon Evans, executive assistant to the central delivery director, Tony Baxter, said: ‘This was Royal Mail’s third Pride in London and our people looked gorgeous in their Delivering with Pride t-shirts and with rainbows painted on their arms and faces - the glitter was out in abundance!
‘It really was a day where our values shone almost as brightly as the sunshine. Colleagues from across the country who had never met before all left as friends with their own plans for drinks or events in the future.’
Content producer and LGBT+ and Friends steering group committee member, Julia Casson said: ‘Black Pride was a really fantastic day! My partner grew up in the Caribbean where it’s not legal to be LGBT – it was so lovely to see so many people being free to be themselves, happily celebrating both their sexuality and their culture without fear of repercussion.'
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IT director for channels and customer experience and BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) steering group chair Dharmini Chauhan, said: ‘The presence of our LGBT and BAME networks together at Black Pride was fantastic, but it also underscored the need for us to do more internally within the company to make colleagues aware of the existence of our diversity networks.’
Our rainbow postbox continues to be a powerful symbol of our diversity. Last week we unveiled a special edition Pride-themed postbox on Old Compton Street in the heart of London’s Soho district to coincide with Pride season.
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The Soho location of the postbox, which will be on display for the next month, was chosen by the LGBT+ community for its historical and cultural significance. Royal Mail enlisted the help of Gay Star News readers to pick the most suitable location.
As one of the UK’s largest employers, we are committed to putting equality and diversity at the heart of our business. This year we will also be attending Pride events in Belfast and Leeds on 7 and 8 August respectively.
Colleagues from local LGBT+ networks will also be attending Pride events in:
- Isle of Wight - 27 July
- Norwich - 28 July
- Plymouth – 11 August
- Pride Cymru, alongside Action for Children – 25 August
- Portsmouth – 15 September
- Dundee – 22 September
- Lincoln – 29 September
Join us
We want people to sign-up to attend the Pride of your choice as early as possible as places are capped. To secure your places, please email pride@royalmail.com with your name, the number of people attending with you, which Pride you would like to attend and whether you would like to be on our float.
