Bonus Difference Makers Discuss 4 - When it comes to inclusion, never assume - Mufseen Miah

you. Perhaps to kick it off as the former financial director of pride in London, you could tell us about about a bit about what pride actually means, and the importance that it's played in the community. I thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Pride is obviously a annual festival that happens in multiple cities and towns, not just in the UK in many countries, and you'll find that a lot of modernised pride parades that happen, find their roots back in the 1960s, late

1960s. And during the Stonewall riots in New York. And that was really a protest at the time, fighting for kind of against injustice and like fighting for equality. For people with varying sexualities and gender. Since the late 60s, that's kind of how pride today, as we know has evolved in at least most Western countries. Pride is still important for me, because when you're a young LGBT person, you don't really you may not

know many other LGBT people. So it's really important to have that in every year in the city or town near you so that you can connect with similar people and kind of find your community in your chosen family. It's really established here in the UK and America and in Ireland, in many Western countries, and we're celebrating now 50 years in London this year. So that's a great landmark to have. And whereas before, we would be fighting for same sex marriage, we have that now, which is

great. Fighting for education for LGBT people in, in LGBT representation in education. That's great. Um, we still have a lot of kind of fights, or fights and stuff to lobby for in our countries, but in other countries like isn't the not as well established. So you know, my parents are from Bangladesh. And there used to be a Pride March there. And there isn't any more because obviously, certain events, and a lot of countries will look to establish countries like us to kind of see a beacon

of hope. And it's really important to have that people can kind of advocate for their rights and celebrate their identities in every country. So this pride is really important to me. And so I kind of really care about equality and diversity and inclusion for LGBT people. And it's kind of like, based off my career, I'm as well. Thank you so much for for sharing that context with us. I

think it's really helpful. Maybe could also share with us just some practical tips that people can use in the workplace to make people feel more included and accepted. Yes, so kind of practical tips for kind of employee to employee, people you work with your colleagues to, to make it more inclusive. I guess, kind of the key thing with diversity inclusion, and especially inclusion is never to really

make assumptions. So like, for example, if someone asked me, where's my family from, I might say Bangladeshi, you could assume that I'm Muslim, because the country of 97% of people are Muslim, then you kind of, you know, it's just easier to ask, because then why if I'm part of that 3% That is and stuff like that. So I think that one of the key things about inclusion is never to assume like always to ask in a very inclusive way and

never to interrogate people. And that's kind of like if you if you learn that lesson, then you can fight against other stuff like unconscious bias. And, you know, and hopefully make it an environment that works well for all colleagues. And so that's kind of like my, one of my key practical tips is kind of, in order to be inclusive, to work colleagues and teammates is always always and to never assume things

really like that. That's very practical, I think goes hand in hand with, keep an inquiring mind and just be open to listening rather than assuming. Thank you. I think it's still unfortunately quite a big deal to come out your friends, your family and your community. So could you maybe talk to us a bit about the link between people's mental health and having to kind of hide their true identity?

Yeah, so for most LGBT people, if not all, we constantly have to come out because the assumption is that we are all heterosexual or cisgendered. So often, even coming out can be quite casual, like you're just gonna help either way, and it's not a problem or you know, it's very inclusive, but you're still having to do the act of coming out and and when an LGBT person does that we are always kind of surveilling our environment to make sure it's a safe

environment. And so it can play a lot into your mental health, if you're constantly confronted with environments in which you aren't safe. So actually, small acts of ally ship from other people make a huge difference to an employee's mental health in the workforce. I did read recently like that, LGBT people are twice as more likely to be lonely. And also 80% of trans individuals have considered self harm. And that's quite true with a lot of mental health statistics with LGBT people and

communities. Also, within within the LGBT spectrum, you have lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans. Mental health is actually the mental health issues are actually in very high in bisexual people compared to other LGBT individuals. And because of that, I'm not sure but it's just keeping in mind that when we're talking about mental health, for the workplace, and for all we're talking about all individuals within the workforce do want to value what mental health for

everyone. But it's especially important for LGBT individuals and other minorities as well. Awesome, thank you, says very, very valuable insights. And I'm a big, obviously proponent of mental health being part of the panda team. So hopefully, we can we can get to more of those communities. You've been a big proponent of equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives. So could you share but which of those have been impactful in your life, and if you think the industry is doing enough in this area?

Yeah. So kind of have a lot of pro bono work that I do is to help LGBT charities and organisations using the skills I have as an accountant and as a businessman. And a lot of that is kind of like arts and community projects, which help the mental health of LGBT people and build community spaces as well. Within work, I'm always supporting kind of LGBT initiatives and mental health initiatives, and diversity initiatives. But I have to give a lot of credit to the HR team

at little dot studios. It's great to work for a company in which the HR team are very invested in EDI networks. So we're a company of eight years. So we're still setting up some networks. But there's always a open forum and transparency to say, hey, we want this network and the HR team help facilitate that. And so I I honestly, am

great. I'm very grateful to work for a company in which they prioritise that and touching on the mental health question earlier, we do have a moment this the first time I worked for a company in which we have Mental Health First Aiders and designated across the company, which they're your first port of call if you have a mental health related issue, and you want to talk to someone outside of your immediate team. And so having those kinds of things set up really helps to build a

supportive workplace. And recently, I've also held events to kind of raise awareness about diversity, inclusion, and that kind of the values of the company as well. So it's great to see that there's a lot of different things happening across the company by different people. And I, I'd be sad to say that, I'd take credit for that. Well, that's great to hear. And it was inspiring to, to see

leaders in the industry. Talk to us a bit about your your podcast, queer talk, it's around sharing positive stories from the community, and maybe just some context around whether you feel like homophobia and transphobia are increasing or decreasing in the UK at the moment. Yes, so during my time as finance rights for pride in London, I was very much always kind of bombarded with LGBT news. What's happening in the

world state of affairs. And what came to light was there's just a lot of homophobia and transphobia. And seems to be increasing. And statistically, they have increased at least reported crimes by four or five times in the UK. And I've kind of seen that sentiment across other countries as well. So I think yes, homophobia and transphobia are on the increase.

And it's horrible unfortunate to say that, but this is why this is why I founded queer to a podcast with my co host Spencer's because what we want to do is reading Jacks back into the community kind of positive news stories, positive news and celebrate our community because a lot of LGBT rights and kind of equality isn't there at the moment, but we also need to remind ourselves, differences are what makes us special. We want diversity in the workplace, but we also want to celebrate

our differences. And that's kind of Why to quit or came about as a podcast, we wanted to space talk about that. We've had guests on who talked about their individual, their individual achievements. And also we talked about positive news stories. So in a recent episode, we've talked about how Tokyo have introduced same sex, they recognise same sex marriage now, which is a great step forward for Japan, but still, in Japan, as a national national level, haven't recognised same sex

marriage. So even a very well developed country is still, there's still places that progress needs to happen in order to kind of reach that benchmark of what we would say is equal for everyone. So we definitely focus on the positives in the podcast, and it's been great to make. It's been great to make that in the last couple of years. Well done to you and your partner, do you think it's very valuable to have those stories

shared? Always, you know, it's good to have other people to identify with and, and think that, oh, that actually sounds like me. So as you said, I mean, it's, it's pretty shocking that the stats are actually on the rise when we talk about homophobia and transphobia. So what do you think government or industry could actually do and adopt as policies to fight discrimination and exclusion? Yes, so one of the like, very key issues, especially in the UK, is banning gay conversion

therapy. Like, so. From my background, I am Muslim. And when I was growing up, there was a lot of homophobic sentiments, and the fact that you can be cured or something like that. So there needs to be a legal recognition that that kind of practice is not okay. And the UK Government keep delaying that. And you know, it keeps getting

shelved. And at some point, we need to say, if you really value diversity and inclusion, and you really want homophobic transphobic, to go down in the country, you have to put a ban on gay conversion therapy and everywhere that it happens. So, for example, the government needs to do that LGBT charities are lobbying for that. But what employees, what employers can do is also advocate for that and send that message across to their workforce like, this is an issue that we care about. This

is where our values lie. And we'd like all employees to also support this, because it affects because it affects people within our company, as well as our relatives and our friends. And same with trans healthcare. We're very fortunate to have the NHS in the UK, but still, trans individuals who need surgery or affirming, affirming, affirming operations are on six year waiting lists. And in order to get private, it's really

unaffordable. So if companies and employers can support initiatives like that, and put more pressure on governments to make law, more equal for people and accessible, and that would be great just WMC. Thank you so much. Again, so important to have your voice and representing this issue today. We really appreciate you making the time and look forward to seeing your continued work.