Celebrating the year of LGBT+ workers and young LGBT+ members

Back to all Motions

Conference
2024 National Young Members' Conference
Date
1 August 2024
Decision
Carried

Conference welcomes the achievements of UNISON’s year of LGBT+ workers, which was celebrated up and down the country in many ways. This year was used to celebrate all our achievements and highlighted the continued discrimination faced by LGBT+ communities. One of the central objectives of the national LGBT+ committee’s year of LGBT+ workers campaign was to increase young member activism throughout UNISON’s LGBT+ self-organised group (SOG).

The young LGBT+ network currently has over 300 members, with an active WhatsApp group and regular meetings throughout the year. These meetings have provided young LGBT+ members with a space to raise issues that are important to them, find out more about how they can be involved in UNISON and navigate the often-complex UNISON structures.

This year, some members of the national LGBT+ committee have been trained on how to be a mentor and have established mentor/mentee programme with the young LGBT+ members’ network. The aim is to establish 10 mentor/mentees, with regional LGBT+ SOGs also taking part.

As great as these achievements are, conference acknowledges that there are many young LGBT+ members in UNISON that are not in the network. We need to continue to publicise this network. This network should also look to further embed itself within the existing work of both national young members forum and the national LGBT+ committee and assist where appropriate.

As we come to the end of the year of LGBT+ workers, it’s vital that we continue to push for greater inclusion for young LGBT+ members within our union and make those voices heard.

Conference calls on the national young members forum to work with the national LGBT+ committee where appropriate to:

1)Continue to promote the young LGBT+ network and encourage young LGBT+ members to be part of the network

2)Continue to advocate for the roll out mentoring training between national LGBT+ committee members and the members of the young LGBT+ network

3)Look for opportunities to hold joint events around issues of importance for young LGBT+ members