Wednesday, 19th October marked International Pronouns Day, a day which seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.
At the ACO, our Rainbow Working Group works to ensure we provide a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ communities, whether they are using our services or work as part of our team. For this year’s International Pronouns Day, the Rainbow Working Group is supplying pronoun badges for staff to wear while working if they choose.
Wearing a pronoun badge is a way to signify your allyship to the LGBTQIA+ communities, and also to allow others to accurately describe you using your correct pronouns. There is no way to know for sure how a person describes themselves unless you ask or are told so this is a great way to make sure accurate information is shared. Furthermore, trans and gender diverse people (those who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth) often experience harassment or fear of discrimination in a healthcare setting so a display of allyship can increase comfort and safety of gender diverse people and allow them to access very needed healthcare. Transgender people are known to have poorer health outcomes than their cisgender (those whose birth sex aligns with gender identity) counterparts so improving cultural safety for this marginalised group is a priority for the ACO Rainbow Working Group.
