Celebrating Voices with Pride

What is Pride Month?  

Pride Month takes place every year in June and is marked around the world. It's a time to celebrate our international LGBTIQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer) community and the value they bring.  

Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots in 1969. They were initially protest marches, where LBGTIQ+ people called for recognition and equality.  

The Pride movement has led to wider recognition, acceptance and inclusion of the LBGTIQ+ community. But we know there’s further to go.  

Why mark Pride month in Voices?  

We know that breast cancer doesn’t discriminate. Whilst most people diagnosed with breast cancer are women, there are also men as well as trans, non-binary and intersex people who are diagnosed with breast cancer.  

We also know that LGBTIQ+ people are more likely to experience health inequalities. They’re less likely to feel safe to go to the GP when they first get symptoms and so are often diagnosed at a later stage. LGBTIQ+ people may also have a worse experience of health care and find it harder to get the treatment that’s right for them.  

Roger, one of our Voices, has previously talked about some of the challenges he faced going through breast cancer treatment as a gay man.   

To decrease health inequalities for LBGTIQ+ people, we need to make sure that their voices are heard in breast cancer research, care and policy.  

So, we need to make sure that Breast Cancer Voices is a supportive and inclusive community. We need to respect, listen to and actively encourage people of all identities - including gender and sexuality – to share their experiences and perspectives.  

How can we make Breast Cancer Voices more inclusive?  

Inclusive language 

A first step in making Voices more inclusive is in the language we use. This is why we talk about ‘people affected by breast cancer’ instead of ‘women affected by breast cancer’.

We want to always remember that breast cancer affects people of all genders in many ways, whether their own diagnosis, or that of a loved one or friend. And we don’t want to exclude people by using gendered language where it's not necessary. 

Our EDI plan 

We’ve also produced an EDI plan for Breast Cancer Voices. It outlines the steps we’ll be taking over the next 18 months to understand how we can make our communication and the opportunities we run more inclusive and equitable for people facing health inequalities, or who may not currently get involved in our work.

If you’re interested in finding out more about our EDI plan, you can contact us at voices@breastcancernow.org.  

Hearing your feedback  

We want Voices to be an inclusive and empowering community, but we know we don’t always get it right. We really value your feedback to hear what we’re doing well, and what we can do better – or what we’re not doing!  

If you have any feedback about how we do things in Voices, or how we can make it easier for people to have a voice, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us at voices@breastcancernow.org.  

Our staff network 

At Breast Cancer Now, we’re also committed to making our work as an organisation more inclusive for LBGTIQ+ people. In our LGBTQ+ staff network, staff work together to raise awareness of the needs of LBGTIQ+ people and make sure that their inclusion is embedded across our work in the organisation.  

The network recently organised a fantastic webinar for staff where we heard from OUTpatients – the UK’s only cancer charity for LGBTIQ+ people. They talked about some of the challenges faced by LGBTIQ+ people with breast cancer, and how we can better support them.  

Sharing stories  

Visibility is also so important in helping people feel confident to get involved and share their experiences.  

Voices is a diverse and vibrant community, and we want to celebrate the range of identities and experiences that people have, and highlight the amazing ways that you get involved with us.  

If you’d like to talk about your experience as a Breast Cancer Voice, and something you’ve been part of that’s been meaningful to you, we’d love to hear from you! You can fill out our Voices case study form, and we’ll be in touch about different ways to share your story.  

Further information and resources

If you’d like to find out more about Pride Month or other LGBTIQ+ topics you can check out the Stonewall website.  

For resources for LBGTIQ+ people with cancer, you can look on the OUTpatients website. They have plenty of fantastic resources, and you can also join support groups and access other services.  

Happy Pride!