HEE celebrates Pride month

Health Education England’s (HEE's) Rainbow Organisation (HEEROs) has created a series of short films to celebrate Pride month and in support of #VirtualNHSPride. HEEROs is HEE’s staff network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people, and their allies.

The films include messages from HEEROs members as well as Wendy Reid, Interim Chief Executive, Lee Whitehead, Director of People and Communications, and Patrick Mitchell, Director of Innovation and Transformation.

The series ends with a montage of staff from across HEE with their own ‘Happy Pride’ messages.

Pride month is celebrated globally throughout June to mark the Stonewall Riots that took place in New York in 1969, which were the starting point of the modern equality movement for the LGBT+ community. This year, due to COVID-19, most parades and marches have been cancelled, with celebrations instead taking place online.

Emma Harper, chair of HEEROs, talks about why they wanted to mark Pride month:

“As we were not able to march this year, we wanted to share thoughts about what Pride means to us, and to remember that the equality we have today has been hard fought by generations before us.

Lockdown has proved difficult for many LGBT+ people, including people being forced to live in unsafe spaces and losing access to vital community and support services. This has highlighted that we still have some way to go to achieving fairness for all people regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation and why it’s important to celebrate Pride and continue the fight for equality.”

You can view all the films on our YouTube site.