Pride in Food: Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month at Compass

This February saw teams from across Compass come together to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month.

Created to shed new light on the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people around the world, LGBTQ+ History Month takes place in February each year to coincide with the abolition of Section 28 in 2003 which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality in the UK.

The month is intended to improve acceptance, visibility, and combat prejudice against those in the community. According to Galop’s 2021 Hate Crime Report, 64% of LGBTQ+ people in the UK have experienced anti-LGBTQ+ violence or abuse in their lifetime, a third have hidden that they are LGBTQ+ at work for fear of discrimination, and 42% of LGBTQ+ school pupils have been bullied in the past year: double that of non-LGBTQ+ pupils.

This is a situation that simply can’t be tolerated, and whilst prejudice and homophobia still exist in our society today, we want to do everything we can to help combat this.

At Compass we’ve got a thriving LGBTQ+ network – Pride in Food – who, together with other employee networks from across the business, organise a yearly calendar of events, discussion forums, and celebrations that create awareness of their communities, promote allyship, and drive a culture that cherishes diversity and inclusivity across the organisation.

For Compass and Our Pride in Food network, LGBTQ+ month was a vital opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our teams and make LGBTQ+ colleagues and clients feel welcomed and embraced.

“LGBTQ+ history isn’t widely taught in the UK, which makes this month even more important,” comments Katie Pathiaki a community lead for our Pride in Food network. “It shines a light on role models and activists within the community who have paved the way for us to feel safe enough to express who we are in our daily lives. It was still illegal to be homosexual in the UK as recent as 56 years ago - something I can’t even comprehend growing up as a liberal millennial.” 

To bring this to life across Compass, the network decided to share the great stories of pivotal figures in the community because as Mark Hawkins, a Pride in Food community lead says, “it’s important to know in our community who helped to influence changes and progression to make life better for our community.”

Such trailblazers included: American gay liberation activist, Martha P Johnson; co-founder of Black Pride Phyllis Opoku-Gyimah; drag performer, actor and presenter RuPaul; mathematician and World War 2 code-breaker Alan Turing.

These influential icons were selected by the Pride in Food Steering Committee, with brochures, posters and social media content created to share their incredible stories. With different figures celebrated each week, this provided the network with the perfect platform to raise awareness of the struggles, achievements and diversity within the LGBTQ+ community whilst also celebrating its past, present and future.

“Celebrating LGBTQ+ history month this February was a really proud moment for our Pride in Food network,” says Vernon Barchou, holding Chair of Pride in Food. “Our rich, and at times challenging history, has forged new pathways for the LGBTQ+ community. We stand for inclusion, diversity and acceptance of all individuals irrespective of their sexual orientation, and this month has enabled us to shine a light on the progress still needed whilst also recognising the wonderful diversity of our community.

And of course, a celebration at Compass couldn’t happen without food, so our chefs got to work and let their creative talents flow with rainbow flag-inspired delights in our restaurants and cafes.

Beyond LGBTQ+ History Month, February was a busy month for our employee networks. Our ethnic minority network, Within, organised a range of activities for Race Equality Week, and our newly formed disability network Ability, held its first committee meeting where they were able to come together to share personal experiences and hear from the network’s executive sponsor about the aims and focuses for the coming year.

Our employee networks play a vital role in ensuring we live and breathe our diversity and inclusion commitments. It’s brilliant to see the impact they are making and we’re so proud and grateful to all our ambassadors and the teams across Compass who help bring these activities to life.

Interested in hearing more from Compass? Check out myGwork’s interview with our Head of Talent, Learning and D&I, Amanda Scott, about the importance of intersectionality and inclusion in the hospitality sector.