Cries of "there are not enough real lesbian and bi women role models" resonate through g3 HQ's offices from the public on a daily basis. Well, actually inspirational women are out there in numbers, in fact 'we run the world' – we all do in some way – just no one has recognised this before until now.
Why do we need role models? In the UK, kids are still bullied at school for being gay, women are still too scared to be open about their sexuality in the workplace through fear of them hitting a reinforced glass ceiling, and throughout the world there are horrendous atrocities served on women for being gay. We want to show the people less fortunate than ourselves, who live in fear or who suffer daily from discrimination simply because of the gender of who they love, that they have support in the fight for equality and better still give inspiration. Please visit our site, be a part of it and get involved.
How to nominate
If you know someone you think has made an outstanding contribution, done something inspirational or is worthy of becoming an ambassador to the cause, then please nominate them on the We Run the World (WRTW) website. Please select one of the categories that would suit in which area they have contributed to.
The campaign will run in g3 magazine and on the WRTW site over the next few months and culminate in an art installation and lounge club night in 2012. We will also be running updates on our weruntheworld.co.uk site.
Categories
• Arts
• Authors/writers
• Business
• Charity
• Club/bar promoters
• Comediennes
• DJs
• Fashion
• Media/PR/marketing
• Music
• Politics/campaign
• TV/film
• Other remarkable things
* All entries must be UK based. Anyone can submit entries, but only one per category per person.
Anyone can be a role model…
Get involved, show your support and be included. If everyone thought hard enough, then there is always someone you have helped or guided or something inspirational you have done. Everyone has made a contribution. As part of the campaign, the g3 WRTW team is holding photo events for you to show up, get snapped and be counted.
Find out more info about the next event online. All images will be added online.
Please visit weruntheworld.co.uk and fill in our online form. Like our Facebook page or follow @g3editor on Twitter for updates.
Role model: found
In a similar way to how we plan to showcase women who are inspirational, an unknown teacher, Elly Barnes, from Stoke Newington School, London, has unexpectedly become a role model in her own right by heading the top 101 most influential people in The Independent on Sunday Pink List after calls for her to be included came flooding in. Unfortunately, less than a third of the entries were for women, a poor reflection of the number of female movers and shakers who are out and proud in the public eye. Well, they are out there but are often missed off the lists. The We Run The World Campaign is looking to recognise similar women who are doing their bit, but to kick off the We Run the World 2012 campaign, here's Elly.
Elly was recently named number one on the Pink List, a shock result to most, not least to Elly herself: "I was so surprised when I topped the Independent on Sunday's Pink List," she says. "It's usually a celebrity who tops it, not someone who's getting their hands dirty at a grassroots level. There are loads of teachers who do lots of work in diversity who don't get the recognition they should, so I take it for all of those teachers who are doing a fantastic job every day combating homophobia in their schools."
After teaching music for 11 years, Elly opened a diversity training centre at Stoke Newington School for anyone working in education to learn how to make their school LGBT-friendly. "I was really amazed at the take-up," says Elly. "We've had people come from Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds."
Elly's school has happy, out LGBT staff and happy, out LGBT students. "I had eight LGBT kids in my year group, and not one of them was bullied," says Elly. School may be the only place where children get education about LGBT people. "If there's a difficult parent or a difficult child, then I enjoy that challenge," she continues. "Changing that person's opinion can be done, and we can all do it in different ways. We are giving facts: LGBT people exist, they are here, and they're all around you.
"It's wonderful to see the penny drop with students, when they suddenly realise that they have been really naive in not noticing that LGBT people are all around them. I had a group of girls who were very homophobic, so I got in a transitioning black lesbian rapper, Ms Fontaine, as I thought she'd be a good role model."
Ms Fontaine came to the school and performed for 1,000 kids. Elly adds: "She worked the crowd, and they loved it. Afterwards, those girls were the first group with their hands up saying they wanted to be in the workshop with her. They were absolutely brilliant and wrote raps about diversity. It sounds like a miracle, but after one 10-minute performance by another black person, their opinions switched."
Elly believes we have a long way to go and that changing homophobic attitudes needs to come through the media. "I don't think it's lesbians who are underrepresented in the media per se, I think it's women," she says. "What's happening with the new government means that women seem to be at the forefront of being oppressed, and lesbianism goes hand in hand with that."
So what's in store for Elly in the future? "At the moment, I'm really excited about the future because topping the Pink List has just given me the confidence now to know what I'm doing is a really good thing," she says. "And I will not stop until every school in the whole of this country is implementing diversity work in the curriculum. We need to encourage all schools to fall into line with diversity because it's so simple – you're saving lives."
Content produced and controlled by Square Peg Media, supporter of the Diversity hub.
