June is a special time of year. Yes, the mercury rises and the hours of sunshine are longer. And yes, there is asparagus. But June is also Pride month and across the UK, people come together to recognise and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
There are however fears of tokenism, of businesses not doing enough and concerns that beyond Pride, there is little else done to support this community within the workforce. To understand how hospitality can better help its staff beyond June, we chatted with Hugh Smithson-Wright founder of Hugh Richard Wright PR and recent recipient of Checking In’s top 50 LGBTQ+ Champions for 2023.
We asked about both the metaphorical and the real flag-waving around pride:
“Don’t underestimate the difference that this could make” Hugh begins, “LGBTQ+ rights are being rolled back and not just in some far-flung dictatorship, in the US and here in the UK too. Right now we have an equalities minister who is trying to roll back trans rights, who blocks bans on conversion therapy and who has mocked gay marriage. This isn’t hysteria or people in the community pretending something bad is happening, this is really happening, so having a rainbow logo for a month actually matters, it’s visibility and it counts”.
There are however important lessons which companies must learn around intentions and authenticity. Hugh continues “I struggle with companies who launch a ‘rainbow’ product without actually donating to causes. I have no problem with people changing the logo to a pride flag, as I say, in the current environment these are not token gestures, but the thing that truly matters is sincerity. For businesses to truly support the LGBTQ+ cause, what matters is the commitment to it.”
Hugh recently received a gong from Checking In as one of the top 50 LGBTQ+ voices in hospitality in the UK. He went onto allude to what more the industry can do.
“Founder of Checking In Will Davies said in his speech that night: ‘there is complacency in hospitality’ and he’s right. We think of these old-fashioned stereotypes of the gay waiter, or the chef who is out and proud, but really there is more work to be done. This is why Checking In is so important, there was a genuinely diverse queer (my preferred term) audience; the full list of Champions showed that the queer people in the industry are not just white gay men.”
“We need to ask our kitchens and our restaurants: are they truly inclusive places to work? Whist we have very visible champions like Jeremy Lee and Nieves Barragán, we can’t look at those people and believe everyone in the industry is happy and free to be their true authentic self.”
Continuing on what actionable steps the industry can take, Hugh said: “Ask your staff, ‘are we as a business doing enough? And if not, please tell us, with nothing off limits, what would you like to see.’ Then listen to them. So many companies will simply say ‘we’re changing the logo to -your- flag’ but did they ask the queer staff what they wanted to do?”
Getting beyond the specifics of individual policies, the first step for restaurants is engagement: to start active conversations with your LGBTQ+ staff and to action as much as is feasible.
Hugh goes on to say: “Is there anyone working for you who is LGBTQ+? If yes, they need to be really involved in these conversations. If you don’t have any LGBTQ+ staff, ask yourself why that is? Depending on where you are, queer people make up between 3-10% of the population, so depending on your location and numbers of staff within your business who are LGBTQ+ you can discover, are you attracting them or not, or do they not feel comfortable being out.”
He continued “I’ve really had it with companies dreaming up policies on trans people (specifically) without trans people being involved in the conversation. They can’t be shouted down or told they are over-reacting or wrong, they have to be involved in the decision-making”.
Looking into the future, Hugh discussed what restaurants can do beyond the month of June:
“You can’t just support your LGBTQ+ staff for the month of June. As I always say: queers are not asparagus, they don’t disappear after the month of June”
Hugh went onto highlight a few people doing it really well:
“One of the things I‘ve always loved about Victor Garvey at SoLa is that he’s always got it. He supports queer charities year-round and he never shouts about it. He’s given his time, donated prizes and money all year-round and expects nothing from it; he is one of the few people just quietly getting on with it. Bleecker are another great one, they are queer owned so perhaps that helps, but they have actively built a reputation as a wonderful place to work. They have tangible socially responsible targets, they host events and generally get involved throughout the year.”
Lastly, on what regional restaurants up and down the UK can do to support the cause locally:
“It’s important to look both at local and national programs. AKT is a youth homeless charity – a disproportionate amount of homeless people are LGBTQ+ – and they operate actoss the UK, supporting vulnerable people at some of their most challenging times. Look at nationwide charities such as Mermaids, or at local initiatives like Manchester’s George House Trust, there are so many great regional charities and local initiatives that restaurants can get involved with.”
