Barclays: Andy talks about celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month and his parenthood journey

Created by VERCIDA for Barclays

 

History lessons and true family values

 

Andy Green talks about celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month and his parenthood journey, and how Barclays has supported him along the way.

I have been with Barclays for almost 10 years, always working around technology as an IT project manager for the corporate banking division. Now, I am a Project Manager VP. In previous jobs, I had come out as a gay man, but it was always later when I felt safe enough to do so. The difference with Barclays was that I was able to be my true self from the get-go. My husband works for Barclays too, and it has always been a supportive, inclusive environment.

 

 

Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month and Intersectionality with Spectrum

Since 2014, I have been a member of Spectrum, Barclays' LGBTQ+ employee resource group (ERG). I’ve had a number of roles within Spectrum, such as fundraising for different charities and taking a lead in Pride activations over the years. It started out with Pride in London and now we take part in about 20 to 30 Pride events across the country. 

I’ve been on the executive committee for Spectrum UK & Europe for the past five years. It’s good to be able to take more of a leadership role, looking at strategy, providing that continuity for our community and colleagues, and reaching out to communities outside Barclays.

For this year’s LGBTQ+ History Month, we are going to look back at the key points in history over the last 60 or 70 years when legislation has allowed greater freedoms for our community and we want to try and encapsulate it with colleague stories. At the moment, I am reaching out across Spectrum to get a number of lovely colleague stories on different themes, such as families and partnerships, whether it’s civil partnerships, same-sex marriage or if people just want to be in a loving relationship without putting a badge on it.

We are also looking to cover Pride and the military, gender recognition and the trans community, as well as shining a light on the events of 1967, when homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales, as well as 1980 and 1981, when it was decriminalised in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. Hopefully, someone will be able to share a story about what it was like then and what it is like now. It’s good to look back on where we’ve come from but, more importantly, the journey is never over. Until the community feels completely safe and recognised, there is more work to do.

Other key dates that we want to highlight for LGBTQ+ History month include 2000, when the ban on LGBT service personnel was lifted in the British military, 2002 when same-sex adoption was allowed in England and Wales, 2013 when the first same-sex marriage laws were passed in England and Wales, and 1972, when the first gay pride parade took place – it was called the Freedom March and it was in London.

 

 

Adoption and Parenthood Journey

On a personal level, Barclays has been very supportive of me and my husband – we have adopted a child together and I’ve recently returned from paternity leave. It all started in about 2014, when Spectrum and the Working Families Network, which is another ERG, did a series of talks on surrogacy and adoption. It opened our eyes and we just started talking about starting a family. At the time, life got in the way, but we picked up the discussion again in 2019 and started our adoption journey in February 2020. The pandemic slowed things down – the assessment side of adoption usually takes about nine months, but it took about a year for us. From January 2021, we went through the family-finding stage, which took about six months, then we were linked with our son in the summer of 2021 and formally placed with him in September 2021. He was a year and a half old. 

My husband and I were always very upfront with Barclays about our adoption journey – from a company perspective, you need to tell your line manager when the adoption is becoming a reality. I told my line manager very early on, within about six months, because I needed a reference, and was able to let him know that I would potentially be taking a leave of absence. 

At Barclays, taking leave for adoption is part of the company’s parental leave policy. It is so inclusive – my husband and I could have taken six months off each or split the time, but in the end, I took 12 months off. For the last six months, I was working flexibly within the Barclays framework. There is a big focus on wellbeing and allowing people to navigate their way back into work after a period of leave. Currently, I am doing two days per week in the office and I have flexibility around that. It was great to have that year with our son.

 

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