In celebration of Pride month, Leeds Building Society has introduced gender pronoun badges for colleagues across the business.
The move comes as part of the Society’s refreshed inclusion and diversity strategy ‘Being You: Transforming Us’ which aims to ensure every colleague feels valued.
As part of this, the Society will also be sponsoring Leeds Pride parade on 6th August and joining at Northern Pride in Newcastle on 22nd July.
Katie Wynn, inclusion and diversity manager at Leeds Building Society, said: “We are proud to announce that to coincide with Pride month we have recently made some changes to further support our inclusion and diversity journey.
“Colleagues across the Society will now have the opportunity to display their gender pronouns through the launch of our pronoun pin badges. “
She continued: “Last year, we also made changes to our IT systems to allow our customers a wider choice of gender options when applying for a mortgage or opening a savings account with us, in recognition that not everyone identifies with the binary view of gender.”
Alanah Lewis, a customer service assistant at Leeds Building Society, added: “As a trans colleague putting my pronouns out there is an important way to express my identity, but it can be quite daunting as it’s often seen as a trans only issue.
“By having pronoun badges, and by having both trans and cis colleagues wear them it can help normalise conversations around pronouns, so that trans people don’t feel singled out by the practice of sharing pronouns.”
Wynn concluded: “We are proud to be implementing changes that make a difference to our colleagues and members.
“At Leeds Building Society we believe that equity and parity are the foundations of a successful organisation, and we are delighted to be taking part in celebrations this Pride month.”
