“What did you do over the weekend?” asked colleague, as I sat down at my desk. My heart raced.
“Oh I just went to a pub with a few friends; nothing special really,” I lied. I would so loved to have told the truth, and shared just how amazing that weekend had been, but… that would have required me to out myself as a trans woman, and I was terrified of the consequences of doing that.

That was a true event in my life before coming out - and that is exclusion. Just as much as being told we are not welcome, being unable to bring our entire selves to work is exclusion. Having to watch everything we say in case we give away some information about ourselves or family that may cause shame, humiliation, harassment or discrimination etc.

So today following my discussion about the Public Sector Equality Duty - today I am going to talk about inclusion and belonging which are a direct consequence of following the PSED guidelines.

You can find the Video edition of this episode here https://youtu.be/dD1TgPeSo2g