Friend of FAIRER interview: Simon Blake OBE, Stonewall

About Simon Blake

Simon is CEO at LGBTQ+ charity, Stonewall. Beginning his career as a gay men’s outreach worker and sex educator in South Wales, he has led youth sexual health and mental health organisations and served as a Stonewall trustee from 2015 - 2021. Influenced by Stonewall’s impact on his own life, Simon’s hope in becoming the CEO is to help build a safe and equal place for LGBTQ+ people to live, work and thrive.

"Stonewall was set up in 1989 to repeal Section 28 with a simple and compelling vision to create a world where everyone has equal rights everywhere. When I started we undertook a review of the role Stonewall plays in the ecosystem now.

"In 1989 we were one of a handful of LGBTQ+ initiatives. Now it is estimated there are 2500+ in the UK. Stonewall’s history of convening, collaborating and leading helped create deep lasting legal and cultural change over the past 35+ years. In publishing our new strategy, ‘In courage and unity, is hope’, we renewed our commitment to this approach as we navigate the turbulent times we are in and seek to achieve our vision of equal rights for everyone everywhere.

"Every piece of policy and legislation should have an LGBTQ+ lens on it, whether it’s housing, social care, older people, or alcohol and drugs policy. Right now we urgently need the government to deliver on its manifesto promises to make LGBTQ+ hate crime an aggravated crime and to ban conversion practices."

LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion

Simon highlights two Stonewall initiatives aimed at helping businesses and employees foster LGBT inclusion.

Proud Employers programme

Proud Employers is a membership programme which provides resources, expertise and networking opportunities to help businesses promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.

"Following consultation with members and non-members of the previous programme, Diversity Champions, we completely reshaped and launched the new Proud Employers programme in June 2025. Employers told us they wanted three things – to understand best practices, to have access to expertise and excellent networking opportunities.

"These three pillars form the basis of the Proud Employers Programme, with a monthly newsletter and webinar on timely, relevant and emerging issues, access to expert resources and toolkits and a series of online and face-to-face networking opportunities that were both general and topic-specific. The Workplace Equality Index was superseded with the Proud Employers accreditation framework which seeks to drive ongoing improvement.

"Through the consultation we were reminded that so much work on LGBTQ+ inclusion is driven by people in a voluntary capacity - particularly by employee resource group (ERG) leads. Our job is to provide practical, actionable, relevant support to make it as easy as possible, and provide support that helps drive business performance through creating inclusion in the workplace."

Rainbow Laces and wellbeing initiatives

"We have also relaunched the Rainbow Laces campaign to encourage movement and exercise, recognising benefits for mental health, wellbeing and a sense of belonging. We know that movement is important in the workplace too. It helps build relationships and when we move, our brain processes information and joins the dots. As the ways we work continue to evolve following COVID, many companies are taking deliberate action to help build relationships and get teams moving. We know some Pride ERGs and mental health ERGs are intending to use Rainbow Laces as an opportunity to connect their members with a focus on movement, wellbeing and allyship."

Responding to criticism

Stonewall has faced criticism about its stance on trans inclusion and the use of inclusive language. Simon emphasises the need for engagement rather than prescriptive rules in moving forward constructively.

"It is important to remember that whilst there has been an intense moral panic focused on trans people, most people support the principle of equality and that remains true. Language is always evolving, hopefully to be expansive and include, rather than exclude. Whether it is different views and beliefs or the ever-evolving use of language, we understand and engage with different views and beliefs. There is so much expertise about workplace inclusion within Stonewall and our Proud Employer members, so constant dialogue and sharing means we can all learn quickly from successes and mistakes.

"Ultimately, Stonewall’s job is to use evidence, data and lived experiences to shape best practice and help guide, facilitate, share and encourage organisations and individuals to adopt language and practices that ensure LGBTQ+ people belong and feel like they belong."

Workplace challenges for LGBTQ+ employees

TUC data shows that young people still go back into the closet when they enter the workplace, even if they were out at university. Around one third of trans people have experienced workplace bullying due to their gender identity.

"The key principle is this: how do you make sure people know that they belong, ensure they feel welcome, and know they’re celebrated and that their contribution is valued, regardless of who they are? Workplaces are microcosms of wider society and people don’t leave the outside world at the door. Many LGBT people, particularly trans and non-binary people, feel the world is less safe and less welcoming at the moment. Workplaces need to find a way to show that they value the diversity that employees bring. Equity, wellbeing and performance fuel one another, so inclusion cannot sit on the side as a 'nice to have.'"

Almost two in five LGBTQ+ employees still feel the need to hide the fact they are LGBTQ+ at work (Stonewall, 2025).

"People still experience harassment, whether it’s direct and explicit or through banter. Some people believe being out will impact their career chances. Many feel sidelined and overlooked. Employers need to send a strong signal that they are inclusive, right across the employee lifecycle. Most employers still have work to do – best practice is always evolving. The question all of us must ask is: are they evolving in ways that meet the needs of all employees – whether it’s from a social mobility, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion or gender-based lens? The exciting thing is this is an ongoing process; there will always be things that we can learn and keep improving."

Supreme Court ruling and Stonewall’s response

In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruling clarified that for the purposes of the Equality Act, 'man', 'woman' and 'sex' mean a person’s biological sex at birth, rather than their gender identity or the sex shown on a Gender Recognition Certificate. Read more about the ruling here.

"The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued interim guidance which has since been withdrawn. We are now waiting for the full code of practice, which should clarify what is expected of employers. There is no hierarchy of rights. In handing down the ruling, the Supreme Court was absolutely clear that trans people remain protected from discrimination.

"All the employers we talk to want to ensure that their trans and non-binary staff are supported and continue to feel they belong within the workplace. Employers need to be engaging with their Pride ERGs and taking legal advice to understand their own particular circumstances. Clarity, fairness, humanity and compassion are key."

LGBT History Month

Simon explores why LGBT History Month remains important for building awareness and inclusion around LGBTQ+ issues.

"As a community we have made a lot of progress in a relatively short amount of time and there was the accelerated period of legislative change between 2000 and 2013. In many ways, our perception of time is a little bit warped due to big life events, like Brexit or COVID. Harvey Milk’s rallying call, 'Come out, come out wherever you are', was about being visible so people could see us and our humanity. Most people have now been to civil partnerships or same sex marriages, so things have become very usual very quickly, which is unusual in lots of civil rights movements."

Despite progress, LGBTQ+ young people are twice as likely to have been bullied in the previous year compared with non-LGBTQ+ peers (Just Like Us, 2021).

"However, it's important to acknowledge the gap between legislative change and cultural change. We know that children are still being bullied at school. Young people are still going back into the closet in the workplace. People are still finding it difficult in some workplaces, and then older people, having spent a life openly, may well end up not getting the healthcare they need or going back into the closet during social care. And right now we are in a period of significant turbulence for the community and we all need to stand together in allyship and solidarity."

51% of LGBTQ+ people would not feel comfortable living in retirement housing without LGBTQ+ specific considerations (LGBT Foundation, 2020).

"LGBT History Month has to be about celebrating much more than recent history. It’s about celebrating people in our community, some of whom are unknown to us, and the big shifts that have been made, like the work of Alan Turing and others. It is also about using the month as a platform to educate, inspire and engage people all year round."

A message to employers and CEOs

In his wrap-up, Simon underscores the need to remain people-centred, reminding us that effective advocacy comes in many different forms.

"We do our best work when we feel psychologically safe, when we feel like we belong. Our people are our greatest asset and everyone wants to be seen and valued. Inclusion isn’t an optional add-on.

"The Proud Employers programme can be used flexibly to support you in being a more inclusive organisation where LGBTQ+ people love to work and can perform well. You can use it to assess where you are and create priorities. We also offer training and consultancy, such as around policy development and speakers, and campaigns like Rainbow Laces.

"As a charity, organisations and their employees also directly support and benefit from our advocacy work to create a world where people are safe, equal and thrive. This inevitably affects how safe people feel at work. If your people feel fearful or unsafe in the world, showing up at work is going to feel more difficult.

"For CEOs, this is a moment to reset and recommit, as well as reassure LGBTQ+ people that your values and commitment to inclusion remain. In a world where everything is increasingly public, there is still room for private advocacy, collective progress and action. The world looks very different than it did five years ago but the principle remains that businesses have a responsibility to help create a fairer, safer world where everyone can thrive."

Find out more about Proud Employers and contact Stonewall here.