FTL in panel discussion for British Medical Journal

We at FTL were contacted earlier this year by Devyani Mahajan who works in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion sector of the British Medical Journal organisation. She wanted to see whether we would be part of a panel and the talk would be Zoomed to members of the organisation. I was very happy to participate but she wanted to know whether I knew of another organisation to share the stage. I suggested a couple of organisations and Lukasz Konieczka of Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust said he would very much like to take the opportunity to share the stage along with Theo Bloom who is the Executive Editor of the BMJ.

Devyani was the facilitator and the take up for the event was high. Devyani started the ball rolling after both Lukasz, Theo and I had introduced ourselves which included our personal stories. The questions then came flooding in. One question I was interested in was how to prepare young children who may or may not be LGBT+ getting familiar with families where the make up is not the one mother, one father and 2.2 children. I said that there is a bookshop in London called Gays the Word and I do recommend this place for all reading matter relating to the LGBT+ community. There are some wonderful books for children and we at FTL have in our library quite a few books from Gays the Word which are aimed specifically at children from a young age. Learning to accept early on that not everybody is made the same but we are all equal, is such an important part of development.

The session was recorded but I don’t feel I can post it as although Lukasz, Devyani, Theo and I are seen, so are a number of the people who called in and it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to release this.

A very satisfying and educational hour and the time just flew by.