Mummy, mummy, the Queers are coming!
The work place is changing, becoming more progressive, open, honest and creatively exciting and it’s all thanks to that lazy millennial generation so constantly and consistently derived, and we can’t thank Kendall enough that they’ve arrived.
Not too long ago (in a galaxy far far away) at a previous place of business, Talker Tailor co-founder Gary was asked not to attend a new business meeting with an Emirati company, for fear it would turn the client off and cost us the work. Why? For those who know him, it couldn’t have been the way he walk, because his fashions are on fleek. And it couldn’t be the way he talk, because out of the group assembled in the room, he was the most experienced. So what was it? Put simply, it was because of who he chose to marry, live with and raise a family with. Dear straight reader, it was because he was gay. It was the opinion of some very senior leaders in the business that being gay — whether you were out there or not — was simply too much of a ‘risk’. That being gay represented a chink in our armour. I was allowed to pitch (yay) and I put that down to being a creative. Creatives were allowed to flick a wrist, according to the business leaders of the time. ‘He’s just eccentric’ but Gary was just gay. A big Liza loving, Cher season ticket holding sissy, that walking gay guy. It was on this day that we started conversations about launching a new business, but trust and believe, it was a WHILE back. Starting up takes tiiiiimmmmmeeeeeee.
The response from Gary on the day — and I remember it vividly — was: ‘what the fuck do they think? That I am going to go in the room, drop to my knees and hum a Cher tune whilst sucking the guys dick?’ We didn’t win the business but tbh, if Gary had done the above, we might well have done.
Cut to two weeks ago, in our new business we pitched for Direct Line, there was a moment in the meeting that filled me with pure joy. The clients were sat opposite us, we were talking very seriously about strategy and emotion and media and PR when Wannabe came on. We always play music loud in our business; we have show-tune-Tuesday (how’dya like those pink ladies) every Tuesday and embrace new pop albums like a double page in The Evening Standard: with a little bit of excited wee. There would have been previous situations where I would have reached for the volume button for fear of being too judged, but on this occasion, surrounded by our own safe space and young co-workers who are optimistic, militant and excited about the future, I wanted to turn it up. Through our Direct Line pitch we heard The Spice Girls, Ru Paul and Madonna and it was bloody brilliant. You pitch happy when you are happy and nothing makes me more happy than a group of people not changing who they are. We have had so many internal conversations where people are presenting the person they believe we want to see, not their true self. We’re all a work in progress on this but we’ll get there, I am resolute.
So what has been the change? In my opinion it’s the millennials what did it m’laud. It’s a generation that is often blamed for the fall of big brands, the laziness in our work culture and the fall of Greece (probably…) but as far as I am concerned they are the saviour of us all. Sure, I spent a huge amount of time pritt-sticking coverage into A3 books and sure, I went door-to-door at radio stations at 3am, but it was fucking terrible. I am still sure the reason I cannot take two steps on a flight of stairs at a time is because of the spray mount Liz Bendall made me use on a daily basis (nothing to do with the fact that a Malteser sharer pack to me is a solo challenge, not an instruction). And yeah Liz, I am putting you on the web. Fuck you spray mount. I look back incredibly fondly on my formative years in PR and I can attest that I did work really really hard but I am also under no illusion that if I was given the choice, would I have really said no to a 4pm finish or a four-day week? Of course not, I barely got home until 5am. Would I have said, ‘I think this spray mount is making me unwell’, of course I would. Would I want more money and to be recognised for my impact, YES! Millennials aren’t lazy, they’re just sick of this shit.
Millennials, I might suggest, are also the reason the workplace is becoming safer for the LGBTQ community or, if we are giving it its full title; the LGBTTQQIAAP* community.
The Q, standing for queer or questioning, is the next evolution for our community. It is no longer a homosexuals only club but embracing anyone who feels they don’t conform with the human-made rules and boundaries of sexuality. It includes everyone who has an open mind. Last week at Sink The Pink, a club night held in London, you could be sure as shit that people weren’t asking about sexuality at the bar because it is understood that everyone in there is a little queer and that’s ok. Some may identify as heterosexual but it is no longer the badge of pride it once was, it is seen as just another bottle in the bucket and isn’t better or worse than anyone else. If anyone doesn’t believe this is a massive step forward and straight privilege hasn’t existed before, you better READ UP.
This month is LGBTQ history month, held annually at the same time as the Stonewall riots occurred, because the struggle is still very real BUT, for this new generation of queer young people, there is definitely a ray of hope. And that ray is rainbow coloured hunty.
*Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersexual, Asexual, Aliies and Pansexual: learn it.
PS. I know that this is Gary’s truth but I have told it with his permission and love.
