John Amaechi OBE

I wasn’t sure I would ever come out publicly.

Until I attended Manchester Pride one year, and noticed a teenage boy watching the parade from the Cathedral gardens, hiding behind the tombstones.

As Ian McKellen drove by on the back of a pink Cadillac, he waved in the boy’s general direction.

I watched as this shy kid, previously too embarrassed to come out from his hiding place, emerged from his shell – just for a minute.

I thought:

‘Maybe I could do that for people who don’t look like Ian McKellen.’

People need to know that Black people can be gay. And that one does not make the other lesser.

And so I made the decision to come out.

#PrideMonth

“Stop being 'not racist', and start being proactively 'anti-racist'.“
Advice on Good Morning Britain ITV for what you can do to take a stand against #racism. It's not the grand gestures and sweeping policies that make a difference initially. It's the #EverydayActivism and small quotidian choices and actions you make, in your homes and communities. #BeTheChange.

Coming out as a professional sports player is not something to be underestimated.

We often talk flippantly about courage, but it's in moments like these we see it in its rawest and truest form.

Jake Daniels has just made thousands of young people feel accepted and represented - and should feel immensely proud.

Do not imagine for one second that this is the end for Suella Braverman.

Braverman is a woman who has been dismissed before for breaking the rules and is now dismissed for fomenting violence on our streets - or, more properly, for being enough of an inconvenience to Sunak.

She has made life hell for everyone, from immigrants and asylum seekers to the police themselves.

She has been a part of a cult within the Tory party (the completely opaque European Research Group) that has made everyone in this country poorer.

When we think about concepts like “pulling up the ladder”, this woman (along with her two predecessors in that role) are classic examples. Literally eliminating the pathways that allowed their ascension while demonising the wonderful multicultural society we inhabit as if they are not a part of what makes it multicultural.

Rather, this is her opening gambit to become a Trumpian, dystopian, authoritarian PM akin to Vivek Ramaswamy in the US with the additional and explicit goal of taking us back to the “good old days” of Enoch Powell and Empire.

Shame on this woman for the harm she has done to the fabric of civility and connection in the UK and across Europe.

We often think that it is the highs that define culture.

The pool table.
The free beers.
The company socials.

But what actually shapes culture is how we handle the tougher moments.

The way we handle micro-aggressions.
The acceptance we show our teammates.
The diversity and psychological safety of a space.

Culture is not measured in gimmicks or perks - it is shaped by the worst behaviours tolerated.