Sir Tim Hitchens

I’m the President of Wolfson College here at Oxford, and would thoroughly recommend the LGBT+ Allies course. Many of us on the course were already engaged in LGBT+ issues, but were looking for ideas of how we could do more. The course was excellent at asking each of us what was holding us back from trying something else. It was very practical, as well as non-judgemental – plenty of room for “stupid questions” that you’d been afraid to ask beforehand. I particularly welcomed the discussion about how we make every workplace comfortable for those in it who feel in a minority, both LGBT+ and others who might feel inhibited, because of their ethnicity, their being a practising believer, or (in the Brexit world) their politics. We also had good discussions about how allies need to be both those in leadership positions and those across the organisation – each bringing something different to the story.  I’m told I was the first Head of an Oxford College to attend the course, and one of my immediate takeaways was to encourage others to come to future sessions!