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Refugee Someone who has had to leave their home country due to war or for fear of persecution. < Back to Glossary

Performance/Performativity Performativity is the concept that language can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change. Performative Allyship: Performative allyship refers to actions performed under the guise of allyship to a marginalised group but which aren’t actually helpful. Often performative allyship is about creating the impression that someone is engaged or contributing to activism, without actually committing to the cause or putting in meaningful work. Considering the effects of Performative Allyship is especially prudent during the time around Pride season. You’re likely to see an uptick in conversations about “rainbow washing”, a term to describe the trend of corporations donning rainbow colours and sharing statements offering surface level support for the Queer Community. This is performative allyship that does little of substance for our community and it does not deserve praise! “Being an ally is not voluntary work. If you are a real ally or motivated to be one, the drive is intrinsic.” - Allan Kartodikromo See: Activist and Changemaker. < Back to Glossary

Grounding Emotional grounding is a coping strategy intended to assure safety and control in the midst of overwhelming emotions like rage, stress, sadness, or panic. It is simply a stop-gap—a way to detach from emotional pain as quickly and effectively as possible. Grounding is a self-soothing skill to keep you in the present and helps reorient you to the here-and-now and to reality. See: Creativity, Breathwork and Minority Stress. < Back to Glossary

(she/her) Sevi Sevi Koppe is Community Director at We Create Space , as well as an international creative director and producer. She's worked for films and music festivals around the world, as a creative director, booking agent and a production manager. Her vision is queer and she's been curating international events since 2000 to promote LGBTQ+ visibility to mainstream audiences. Sevi works with venues around the world to coordinate exclusive events. Sevi studied queer media and spaces in Japan to understand what support is offered to minors inside and outside of the formal education system. Sevi Koppe Looking for a Guest Speake r ? Get in touch Our Recent Articles... DEI Trends in 2025: Practitioner Wellbeing and Career Sustainability. UNLOCK | Queer Leadership 101 with Pius Kennedy Harnessing Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance. Create Space for Change. We work with 100+ Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke DEI solutions. Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce insights and craft content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Discover our bespoke corporate solutions... Work with us

Caregiver A caregiver or carer is a paid or unpaid member of a person's social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Since they have no specific professional training, they are often described as informal caregivers. Taking care of a loved one and being responsible for their health can be very stressful. There are a lot of tasks to juggle, from managing medications to helping with getting dressed or bathing. While family caregiving can be a genuinely rewarding experience, the caregivers often face common challenges that leave them overwhelmed, anxious and/or intimidated by their duties. < Back to Glossary

(they/them) CK CK is an artist, medical professional, yoga, breath and sound teacher. They write poetry through the heart and perspective of a trans non binary person in their journey of self-discovery. They are passionate about art, poetry, faith and spirituality. CK lives, loves and leads in service to humanity. Whilst practicing they bridge allopathic and holistic medicine and amplify their voice and presence to cultivate intersectionally inclusive spaces and practices for LGBTQIA + and all people. CK Looking for a Guest Speake r ? Get in touch Our Recent Articles... DEI Trends in 2025: Practitioner Wellbeing and Career Sustainability. UNLOCK | Queer Leadership 101 with Pius Kennedy Harnessing Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance. Create Space for Change. We work with 100+ Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke DEI solutions. Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce insights and craft content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Discover our bespoke corporate solutions... Work with us

(they/them) Ailish Ailish’s career has including working as a senior policy advisor to the Minister for Women and Equalities on Trans and Non-Binary policy as well as in the Equality and Human Rights Commission. They have also worked in numerous roles in the third sector, including as the Lead for Inclusion at Europe’s largest conservation charity. Now they are focused on consulting, coaching and facilitating learning spaces where people can connect with their authentic selves and perhaps be allowed to gently change their mind about something. As a coach, Ailish empowers people to deepen their self-knowledge and access the best version of themselves. As well as an ICF accredited coaching diploma, Ailish holds an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture. They bring an understanding of how power, privilege and social norms can influence our experiences at work and a passion for creating spaces where everyone can be themselves and thrive. Ailish is an outdoor-lover who also runs a hiking community called Queer Out Here, which is all about connecting with nature and ourselves. Ailish Breen Looking for a Guest Speake r ? Get in touch Our Recent Articles... DEI Trends in 2025: Practitioner Wellbeing and Career Sustainability. UNLOCK | Queer Leadership 101 with Pius Kennedy Harnessing Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance. Create Space for Change. We work with 100+ Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke DEI solutions. Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce insights and craft content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Discover our bespoke corporate solutions... Work with us

Trauma “Trauma is not what happens to you; trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what has happened to you”. DR GABOR MATÉ (Canadian Physician) “Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then, it’s the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people.” BESSEL VAN DER KOLK (Dutch Psychiatrist) “Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.” PETER A LEVINE (American Clinical Psychiatrist) < Back to Glossary

(she/her) Taylor Taylor, was outed in the media on November 19, 2014, has since dedicated her platform and privilege to elevating the voices of Black and brown trans individuals and fighting for social justice in Washington, DC and beyond. She has extensive experience as an American Sign Language interpreter and crisis management consultant. Additionally, Taylor is an advocate for the rights of intersex and trans individuals, and is a seasoned speaker on these topics. Taylor Lianne Chandler Looking for a Guest Speake r ? Get in touch Our Recent Articles... DEI Trends in 2025: Practitioner Wellbeing and Career Sustainability. UNLOCK | Queer Leadership 101 with Pius Kennedy Harnessing Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance. Create Space for Change. We work with 100+ Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke DEI solutions. Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce insights and craft content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Discover our bespoke corporate solutions... Work with us

Affirmations Something that motivates, inspires and encourages you to take action and to realise your goals. These are most often short phrases that you can repeat throughout the day. Affirmations are important tools to help us change our patterns of thought, maintain a positive mindset, and also help us get back on to the right path if we are struggling. < Back to Glossary

Self Your self is your sense of who you are, deep down — your identity. It refers to the totality of the individual, consisting of all characteristic attributes, conscious and unconscious, mental and physical. < Back to Glossary

Transition The process of shifting toward a gender role different from that assigned at birth, which can include social transition, such as new names, pronouns and clothing, and medical transition, such as hormone therapy or surgery. < Back to Glossary

Gender Assigned at Birth Often associated with the sex (male or female) assigned to a child at birth by a medical doctor, most often based on the child's external anatomy. Also referred to as biological sex, or sex. This can differ from ones self-determined Gender Identity. < Back to Glossary

Lavender Menace The phrase “lavender menace” was originally derogatory, referring to how the feminist movement was highly associated with lesbians in the late 1960s. In 1970 it was reclaimed by a group of radical lesbian feminists who held a zap protest at the Congress to Unite Women in New York City to protest the congress’ lack of lesbian representation. Protestors wore t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase “Lavender Menace” and carried placards, storming the stage and taking over the event. The following day, many were invited to run workshops on lesbian issues. This event was a key turning point in second-wave feminism and a powerful example of the power of direct action. We’ve come a long way in how we think about feminism and queer liberation since the 70s, but this incident was an important step towards building a more intersectional women's rights movement. < Back to Glossary

Genderqueer Denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender. (syn. Genderfluid) < Back to Glossary

Prejudice Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. An unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc. When prejudice is put into action, this is discrimination. It would be unreasonable to say that anyone is completely free of internalised prejudices against others. It is our duty to recognise the prejudices we hold, and to question them. It is only when we begin to question our prejudices that we can begin to dismantle them effectively. See: Bias and Discrimination. < Back to Glossary

Altruism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals. < Back to Glossary

(he/him) Darren Darren is a native Mancunian and is currently a director. producer, and choreographer. Darren has 23 years’ experience in fashion, theatre, TV and performing arts. He is the founder of Ghetto Fabulous , a QTIPOC dance collective that aims to excite, entertain, and have fun with the projects it embarks on, inspired by fashion, music, film, photography, and the ever-changing world. Darren is not afraid to explore the political and the personal. It let him to create Black Pride MCR , a yearly event for the QTBIPOC community that is fierce, flamboyant, and fabulous. Darren is also the Co-Artistic Director at Black Gold Arts , the UK’s only Queer People of Colour outside festival. One of the main objectives of Darren’s work is the economic advancement of the QTBIPOC community, and the other is to spread Joy. Darren Pritchard Looking for a Guest Speake r ? Get in touch Our Recent Articles... DEI Trends in 2025: Practitioner Wellbeing and Career Sustainability. UNLOCK | Queer Leadership 101 with Pius Kennedy Harnessing Queer Joy as an Act of Resistance. Create Space for Change. We work with 100+ Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke DEI solutions. Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce insights and craft content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Discover our bespoke corporate solutions... Work with us

Caste Caste is a type of hierarchy in which people are born into fixed social groups and while it is most well known as a feature of Indian society, caste systems exist across South Asia. Your caste can influence your occupation, who you can marry and how you are expected to interact with others and while the system originally just applied to Hindus it has since spread across all of Indian society. While it is now illegal to discriminate on the basis of caste in India, the caste system continues to exacerbate inequality, with members of lower castes being vastly underrepresented in education and formal employment. Caste based discrimination also exists amongst South Asian diaspora living in other countries. See: Kyriarchy, South Asian < Back to Glossary

Confidence Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one's self. The concept of self-confidence is commonly defined as self-assurance in one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc. Self-confidence involves a positive belief that in the future, one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do. Self-confidence is not the same as self-esteem, which is an evaluation of one's own worth, whereas self-confidence is more specifically trust in one's ability to achieve some goal. Many LGBTQ+ people lack confidence because of ingrained and internalised beliefs, often instilled from childhood. See: Affirmation & Belief. < Back to Glossary