Why do you celebrate Pride and what makes it important for you to celebrate it?
Pride is a great opportunity too to not only celebrate the progress the community has achieved but also remember those that fought over decades so that we can enjoy these days, rights, and freedom. We are a huge and diverse community of spectrums within gender and sexual orientations and Pride helps to give more visibility to minorities within minorities, like FLINTA (*This German acronym stands for women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people). Plus, why not talking any opportunity to have fun and enjoy life too.
How would you describe your experience as a queer person in the workplace?
I have been quite lucky to never experience any sort of discrimination or slur as an employee, at least addressed directly to me. I am openly gay, so most of the times I never had to come out in a traditional way let’s say but I do feel myself sometimes paying extra attention to what I say or how I act in case that could trigger some homophobics around. Which shouldn’t be the case.
Would you be comfortable sharing any learnings from your journey as a queer person that might inspire your co-workers?
I would say protect yourself in a working environment and feel free to navigate your queerness in a way that you feel comfortable with.
If Fourthline could do one thing better to be more inclusive for Queer people, what would that be?
I think Fourthline could do a bit more to embrace and educate their employees in the diversity we have in FL. There are plenty of visible gays and lesbians but I don't think there is awareness of non-binary colleagues.
How do you look back on participating in this initiative and what do you hope it brings/enables?
I hope it helps those that are part of the community as seen and I do really hope this is an initiative that resonates also on those that are not part of the LGBTQ community.