I'm Chris Fox I am an associate scientist at AstraZeneca MedImmune and
my focus is on safety and efficacy testing for preclinical and clinical trials.
Although there aren't a whole host of well-known LGBT role models in
biotech I've been lucky in that everywhere I've
worked there's been at least one out, openly gay member of staff and thats really made
me feel comfortable to be myself at work.
My name is Michael Rivera and I'm a
biological anthropologist. Biological anthropology is the study of humans from
a biological perspective. So, we try to answer questions about how did we evolve
and why do we see the diversity in humankind today.
Growing up I didn't
really have many role models to look up to but I've been told very recently by
several undergraduates at Cambridge that I have served as a role model to them in
being out and proud about who I am.
My name is Anna Langley. I work at
University Information Services here at the University of Cambridge and I'm a
Computer Officer. Very early on I got interested in the
music by Wendy Carlos who is a pioneer of electronic music in the late 60s and
early 70s. She came out as trans a little bit later though I didn't know it
of course when I first heard her music. The interest in music I've kept ever since and
I still pursue that in my spare time but it also got me interested in electronics
and in particular in computing as music went digital.
My name is Sara El-Gebali
I'm a scientist at EMBL- EBI
Bioinformatics Institute and I work in protein sequence analysis. I'm officially
a scientific database curator.
Regarding role models, LGBT role models in science,
sadly there are very, very few of them, but it's not because we are not here it's
just we're not seen - we're not officially here.
My name is Elizabeth Wynn
I work for the Sanger Institute and I'm
a researcher on developmental disorders.
I think I've been quite lucky in terms
of my career and my sexuality in that I've never felt that I had to make a
specific choice because of my sexuality. I mean, I've lived and worked in
very liberal cities in the UK so that has never really been an issue for me.
I'm quite lucky in that being LGBT hasn't had an impact on my career and I
think that has to do with the fact that everywhere I've worked there's been
other openly gay members of staff.
Being LGBT in science has been really tough.
It affected me in many ways like, for starters I had to come out of academia.
It's just the environment didn't work out and made it really, really hard to
come out as well. But it also prompted me to make the decision that I need to work
with what I love - somewhere where I can be accepted. Somewhere more
progressive, more inclusive and maybe more international.
Being trans has
affected my career. It started in high school when I was affected emotionally
by it like with depression and it affected my grades which went down so I couldn't
go to university straight after I finished high school. I did a succession of
jobs, then when I came out in my late 20s everything... my career stopped and I had
to reevaluate. And I then went to university and read computer science and
mathematics, then worked in other jobs. Sometimes that
was awkward because of my being trans so I've had to stop and start a few times
but now I'm working here and things have been going fairly well.
When I was younger my mother
used to tell me a very important lesson in life. She taught me
that one of the most important things was that I put a lot of work into studying
and as long as I was happy and healthy there's nothing wrong with being gay or
being who I want to be so she always taught me to value oneself and not
worry about what other people think.
I think the Sanger is a good place
to work in general. They do a lot of things here on campus to support
people's work-life balance in general.
Working IT it's still very much a
straight white male cis environment, but generally I think that the university is
really trying to do the right thing in terms of diversity. It's trying to ensure
that people are treated fairly regardless of their background, their
gender identity, their sexuality.
I think it's really important to have a strong
community around you when you do science and when you do academia because you
really do need some people to be supportive of you.
I've always found it very easy to be open and honest about who I am in front
of other people, with other people in Cambridge so I do feel quite well
supported and happy.
Working at AstraZeneca/Medimune, it's a
really supportive environment. We've got a employee resource group called AZ PLUS.
PLUS stands for people like us. I don't think I would be as confident as I am at
work if I didn't have people around me who were openly gay or openly lesbian,
people who were happy to be themselves. It made me feel that I could be myself.
If you're not visible as someone who's LGB or T, intersexual, queer, non-binary
whatever, then you're making it that little bit harder for other people to be
open about their experience too, and you make it that little bit harder for them
to be who they are, for them to be comfortable in their own skin in the
working environment.
I think it's important to be who you are, to be able
to live as your authentic self because you're never going to be truly happy or
productive or complete if you're trying to silence or hide some part of yourself.
We need people not to discriminate against us, we need people to be able to
hire us and not have a negative outlook on us or think that our performance is
in any way less than any person. That's why we need to do this we need to
say no I am a person, I work hundred and fifty percent and I am LGBT!
Cambridge has been
really great. There's a real emphasis on it's what you can bring to the
table in STEM rather than who you are. It's about what you can achieve not what your
sexuality is.
I think Cambridge is a great place for people to work
especially LGBT scientists. It's a really supportive place and you know, just very
liberal. I don't think that there's a lot of discrimination or
anything and it's just a fun place to live.
With such a diverse, knowledgeable
population in Cambridge I think it's very likely that you will find many
friends to make here with common interest to you. You will find lots of
allies who are open to different backgrounds and different sexualities
and maybe you'll even find someone very special to spend time with.
Being in Cambridge, has helped me come out - and not just to my friends and family
but also to work. And it's the first time in my long career where I can
officially say yeah, here I am and I'm not the only one.
So, Cambridge has been very very good to me.