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not repeated when it comes to men. Yannick knows of only one gay man who is out in the whole of the Sussex service, but struggles to pinpoint why that may be, given that the environment has become a lot more inclusive and there are work courses aimed at educating around diversity.
BURNING AMBITIONS East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service (ESFR) is gearing up for a recruitment campaign in which it is actively encouraging applicants from diverse backgrounds, including LGBTQ+ communities. Jaq Bayles spoke to two women whose stories inspire ) The Fire Brigade Union has had a national
LGBT Support Group since 1994, and its chair and one of the founding members is Yannick Dubois, ESFR station manager – business safety (based in Hove), who has seen many changes and improvements in inclusivity over the years. Indeed, when she joined the service it wasn’t especially welcoming to women, LGB or people of colour – of the 30 people on her training course in Buckinghamshire she was the only woman. “There were just a few lesbian and gay people
who met in pubs to see if there were other people like us in the service,” she recalls. “At the time there were a lot of issues, LGB people were going through hell. It was the ‘90s and equality and diversity were not the best.” It took around six years for Yannick to come out: “I needed to meet with other women, other gays and lesbians, and eventually we formed a group that became part of the structure of the service.” But while there are plenty of ‘out’ women across the service as a whole, the pattern is
Colleague Jules King, assistant director – Safer Communities, and chair of Women in the Fire Service UK, says she would be “astounded if there were not more gay men in our workforce”, and adds: “There’s something that’s preventing some of my male colleagues feeling it’s not safe for them to feel their whole selves at work. Is it like football or rugby, where there are not many openly gay men? It’s a fantastically supportive environment where I can be wholly myself, I’ve been open about my sexuality and I’m comfortable with it.
“My dad told me to stay in bed as long as possible because you get shorter during the day, and to wear a couple of pairs of socks. I just made it” “It’s OK to be different and celebrate diversity. I bring different elements to the work – being more diverse I have different experiences. Just by being myself I have different life experiences, my family is different, I have adopted children, my daughter has special education needs. My colleagues will have different experiences from me. We can look from different perspectives and there’s always more than one way to serve.” Like Yannick, Jules has noted many changes in the service since she joined in 1994, although there were a full three women on her training course. She came to the job after stumbling across an ad for East Sussex Fire Brigade, which went on to say words to the effect that it “particularly welcomed applications from women and black and minority ethnics”.
JULES KING
“I remember thinking I didn’t know women could be firefighters. I showed the ad to a good friend who said: ‘Jules, you can do that’. I told my mum and she said: ‘you can’t do that dangerous job’.” Back then there were other obstacles to joining the fire service too: “You had to be
