Photograph by: Nicky Ebbage (Unsplash)

On 7 February 2024, City University’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences held a hybrid panel event to celebrate the members of the LGBTQI+ community who made the greatest contributions to improving healthcare throughout the United Kingdom, especially for people who identify as LGBTQI+. 

Before the talk began, the majority of the participants spent 30 minutes socialising and enjoying deliciously cooked food and fruit juices at room ELG14 of the Drysdale Building. Participants included the event’s host, LGBTQI+ members of City’s teaching faculty, City students who identify as LGBTQI+, and City’s Head Chaplain who also identifies as LGBTQI+. What a diverse and welcoming bunch indeed!

At around 12:20 pm, everyone moved to room ELG12 for the event’s host, Dr Michelle Ellis (She/Her), the Associate Dean of City’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences, to begin the talk at 12:30 pm. According to Dr Ellis, this talk is the fifth event promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and LGBTQI+ History Month this year. As such, she reminded everyone in the room and those joining online via Microsoft Teams to remain sensitive and respectful throughout the event as the panellists narrate their personal, often painful personal experiences as LGBTQI+ workers in British healthcare and other related fields. 

In total, five panellists contributed to the talk:

1. Mrs Nicola Cottington (She/Her), the Chief Operating Officer of the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust who began a network coaching healthcare staff to build a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQI+ people living in Suffolk and who also ran a breast-reconstruction programme for breast cancer survivors in the same county. Mrs Cottington identifies as a lesbian.
2. Dr Keith Simpson (He/Him), a Senior Lecturer at the City Law School, former barrister, and former member of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. Dr Simpson identifies as a gay man.
3. Dr Raf Benato (They/Them), a Senior Lecturer at the City’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences, as well as the founder of the City’s LGBTQI+ Anti-Discrimination Action Group. Dr Benato identifies as a transgender non-binary person and requires others to use gender-neutral pronouns when referring to them.
4. Frankie (She/Her), a Second Year Doctoral Student at City’s School of Health and Psychological Sciences. Frankie identifies as bisexual and is currently doing her thesis on the experiences of bisexual clients in therapy.

The entirety of the event mainly consisted of Dr Ellis asking all four panelists (and sometimes members of the audience) about their unique experiences as LGBTQI+ people in the United Kingdom, as well as possible ways to solve the issues currently faced by the LGBTQI+ community throughout the country’s public institutions. The questions asked and the answers of all four panelists are detailed in the following paragraphs below:

Question 1: What has your experience been in your career?

In response to this question, Mrs Cottington described how she started her nursing training at the same time as she began questioning her identity 25 years ago: a thought process which, in her confession, still bothers her to this day. In addition, Mrs Cottington also narrated a homophobic incident that occurred during one of her nursing placements. In this unfortunate incident, her mentor described two clients as “disgusting” for being in a same-sex relationship: a statement which upset both her and everyone in the room. Consequently, Mrs Cottington expressed how she felt “invisible” in her past. Despite this, she retold her experience working in intersexual healthcare which she happily described as being more inclusive and diverse for her as a questioning lesbian.

On the other hand, Dr Simpson’s story is unique as he started his career as a railway worker in the 1980s, before moving to London to work as a barrister. Although Dr Simpson changed both his type of job and his work environment, he continued to experience the same feelings of discomfort and alienation throughout his life as a gay man. According to Dr Simpson, this is because gay men were condescended by British society in the 20th century for failing to conform to the traditional stereotypes of masculinity of the time. Despite the challenges, Dr Simpson remained resilient and improved his life after moving to London by doing the following. Firstly, Dr Simpson joined a support group for gay barristers to strengthen himself and other barristers who shared similar experiences as him. Secondly, Dr Simspon joined City, University of London in 1997, an institution where he felt the most ease throughout the whole of his lifetime.

As for Dr Benato, they have been keeping their identity a secret throughout their 10 to 12 years as a former General Practitioner in the NHS. Dr Benato’s life changed for the better after joining City, University of London in 2005 where they openly came out as a transgender non-binary person. During their 19 years of working in City University, Dr Benato realised that the ignorance of some students at City is the main issue facing LGBTQI+ staff and students. As a result, Dr Benato emphasised the need for every member of City University to think about the language they choose to use to speak to people to ensure that no homophobic, biphobic or transphobic incidents occur in the university. On a more positive note, Dr Benato uses their experiences, passion, and courage to start open, collaborative discussions about their gender identity to their students during their classes which, according to Dr Benato, leaves their students to feel encouraged to be open and brave about their identities too.

Moving on, Frankie has spent two to three years working in mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Alternatively, Frankie narrated her experiences with homophobia in both her professional and private life. Frankie spoke about her doctoral thesis on bisexual people in therapy because of how bisexuality is under-researched in academia.

Question 2: Could you talk about your experiences as a LGBTQI+ person receiving healthcare?

Similarly to her experience as a nursing student, Mrs Cottington experienced another homophobic incident as a maternity nursing student 17 and a half years ago. In this incident, a male maternity student reacted to seeing a lesbian couple with their child by laughing boisterously in front of them and Mrs Cottington. Reflecting from this incident, Mrs Cottington highlighted that she thinks the student in question laughed not out of malicious intent but out of ignorance. Hence, she emphasised how all healthcare workers and medical students must approach same-sex couples with openness to avoid making them feel uncomfortable.

On the other hand, Dr Simpson revealed his experience of being tested HIV positive for the first time at a hospital in Sheffield in the 1980s: an experience he described as being “scary”. In contrast, Dr Simpson’s experience being treated in London specifically in the Royal Free Hospital, was more positive as he described the healthcare staff there as “wonderful people” and revealed that he continually visits the General Practice due to feeling happier there.

Similarly, Dr Benato described their “generally positive” experience with the NHS in London, especially since the healthcare professionals they encountered were very respectful with the pronouns and language they used with them. Another reason for Dr Benato’s satisfaction was the healthcare professional’s tolerance for allowing their partner at the time to be at their side during most of the surgeries they underwent. 

As for Frankie, she generally had neutral experiences when receiving healthcare. 

Question 3: How do you think you contributed to the LGBTQI+ community?

In her experience, Mrs Cottington used her position in the NHS to challenge assumptions, certain ways of thinking and of speaking in Suffolk’s medical community. In particular, she was against “binary thinking” and the use of certain words which makes spaces for LGBTQI+ people unsafe, later emphasising the need to celebrate “the beauty of diversity”. On a practical level, Mrs Cottington signs off “zero-tolerance letters” which allows her to exclude patients who behave in a discriminatory manner against LGBTQI+ NHS staff from receiving healthcare. However, Mrs Cottington highlights that punishing the perpetrator is not the main focus of these letters as she also emphasises the need to care for the wellbeing of healthcare staff who experienced any form of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse.

Furthermore, Dr Simpson used his experience as a gay barrister and a former member of the RMT to emphasise the role trade unions have on ending not just discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community, but also to other groups being discriminated against in modern society. From this, he emphasised how British trade unions must be responsible in showing solidarity to refugees, immigrants, and transgender people in the United Kingdom against hate and injustice. 

Similarly, Dr Benato emphasised the role of staff network in ending discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community in universities across the United Kingdom. However, Dr Benato claimed that LGBTQI+ students in City University were “not heard enough” due to a scarcity of results in City’s LBGT+ Student Voice. Therefore, Dr Benato used their position as City’s Bullying and Harassment Advisor to continue supporting LGBTQI+ students at City, and detailed how it is important to be both visible and present to support LGBTQI+ students in any academic institution.

Question 4: Do you have any strategies for future improvements to City University or to the NHS?

Significantly, Mrs Cottington outlined how mandatory e-learning for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion is not the best way to ensure the safety of the LGBTQI+ community in City University or the NHS because she believes that people can just passively tick the boxes and submit EDI forms without reading its contents. Hence, Mrs Cottington argues that, instead, both institutions must create and maintain a diverse and inclusive environment where people are viewed and respected as human beings, where people must be respectful to those who are traumatised, where making assumptions about people is strongly discouraged, and where being curious and spreading compassion is emphasised. Additionally, she also noted that it is essential to role model people’s use of pronouns in order to be as open as possible to the possibility that individuals may use different ways of addressing themselves. Hence, Mrs. Cottington highlighted that acknowledging fluidity is important because, in her own words, “people change”.

As for Dr Simpson, he highlighted that tackling all forms of social inequality is the way to move forward as he believes that most of British society’s power and wealth are only possessed by white men which, according to Dr Simpson, allows society to remain unequal. Finally, he emphasised to the audience and to other panellists of how black people, transgender people, and refugees still experience inequality to this day and ended his statement by encouraging everyone to live as role models to fight inequality.

Agreeing with Dr Simpson, Dr Benato reiterated their colleague’s sentiment on role modelling and acknowledging inequalities, but continued by reflecting on their role as a Senior Lecturer. Through this reflection, Dr Benato stated that careful considerations and changes should be implemented to the literature, images, language, and case studies used in university lectures to make it “as diverse as possible”.