When celebrities come out, they make it easier for the rest of us to do the same
Emeli Sande shared that she had fallen in love with a woman, Rebel Wilson introduced her girlfriend. Then, just last week, Dame Kelly Holmes felt she could be open about her sexuality.
I am over the moon to say that she will be making her first appearance at the British LGBT Awards, taking place tonight. We should celebrate these women coming out; not only because everyone should have the right to live their life openly with the people they love, but because of what it means to the rest of the community, too.
Visibility and seeing people like us represented is directly linked to our experiences in every aspect of life, our recent LGBT+ under 25s survey suggests.Having positive female role models is a great step forward and can only improve that journey for others.
But, at the same time, we have to ask, would they have come out sooner if there was better representation in the first place?Our recent nationwide study of LGBT+ youth found that a higher proportion of men stated that it was easy to come out at work (86%) compared to women (60%).
