Pride | Active allyship to eradicate norms

Pride began modestly in Ireland, in 1979, with a small number of courageous people marching the streets to demand the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Then, the first Pride Parade took place in 1983, just a few months after the brutal murder of Declan Flynn in Fairview Park. Now, Pride is one of the biggest events in our capital’s calendar and played a crucial role in paving the way for the progressive society we have in Ireland today. ?

Yes, lately there have been setbacks with the horrific acts of violence seen in Sligo earlier this year. While these events don’t mean we have been cast back 40 years, they do show we’ve still a road to travel on how we think as a society about gender identity and sexuality.

But acknowledging we need to evolve our thinking isn’t enough – we must constantly challenge ourselves and ‘the norm’, to turn our thoughts into action and show active allyship to create a truly inclusive society. ?

Eradicating ‘normal’

In our busy lives, we all live in our own worlds – worlds that are defined by our upbringing and current social identity – for example where we live, work and who we socialise with. We, knowingly or unknowingly, surround ourselves with people that validate what we think. Even online our communities (and algorithms!) are pushing us messages we agree with, messages we believe are ‘the norm’. But what is normal? And what does it need to become?

Normal is defined as conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected. We frame anything we see or experience which is different to our every day as being ‘not normal’. This labelling of ‘not normal’ can lead to stigmatisation and a lack of a sense of belonging. In our business, as consultants, we challenge norms, we dig deep to uncover the ‘why’ and create strategies for change to upend the ‘norm’. However, as individuals, we often settle for the status quo.?

We don’t need the status quo or ‘norms’ – we need to start seeing things as they are. As leaders it’s part of our role to ‘normalise’ expectations, but with that we have an opportunity to create a world that’s not predetermined. We can’t make assumptions that people are better or worse, people are more cosmopolitan or not, people are more progressive or not. We need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and create a society free from ‘norms’, and not only of allyship, but active allyship.

#QueerAllYear - #AllyAllYear

Deloitte’s theme for Pride this year is #QueerAllYear – a pledge to encapsulate a year-round focus on LGBT+ inclusion, not just a moment in time. And that’s essential to challenge ourselves to play an active ally role, and eradicate those norms. While we can, and should, legislate against hate crime, there are many instances of heinous biases and behaviours that we can’t legislate against. That’s where we as leaders come in, to upend the norm, and show active allyship every day.

It’s not enough to wear a Pride lanyard and participate in a pride event, it’s not enough to pledge your support via social media or go along to a parade. We need to find ways to be ally’s all year round by speaking to our LGBT+ colleagues or friends, and speaking up, to help society evolve into a more open, inclusive, values-based mindset that creates space for everyone to be themselves. I wrote about active allyship at International Women’s Day, and the importance of not just showing up to events to show my support, and I must also challenge myself to commit to active allyship for the LGBT+ community, and stand-up, not standby when witnessing bias.

As organisations we also have a role to play all year round, not just at milestone events. At Deloitte we regularly support charities such as Shout Out and LGBT Ireland, but we know this isn’t enough to foster a true culture of inclusion. Over the past few years, we have made significant progress in embedding our inclusion strategy into the way we do things, through the roll out of powerful sessions on inclusive leadership, and the creation of an Inclusion Council. We also work closely with Business in the Community which has taught me individually, but also me as a CEO, the value of an open forum to learn from each other, and become comfortable with challenging ourselves, and challenging our norms. The more we do this, the more inclusive our organisations, our people, and in turn our society will become.

We have made huge progress over the past four decades. We are an open and inclusive economy and society. We’ve come a long way from the first Pride march in 1979, but now it’s time to take individual action and become active ally’s to develop our societal norms, because Ireland’s future - our future - is dependent on this.