June is Pride month, and you may have seen the pride logo on our emails and social media channels. Pride is about much more than a logo in the month of June however. 

It is about recognising and celebrating diversity and ensuring we support all sexualities and gender identities of staff, volunteers and members who are all part of the Wildlife Trust network. 

As nature conservationists we naturally celebrate biological diversity, we all understand how important it is for functioning ecosystems, and we stand up to protect it. The same is true for human diversity. Our society is richer, stronger and more creative for including and fostering a wonderful diversity of people and their voices, and at Surrey Wildlife Trust part of our core mission is to connect all people and wildlife. 

Surrey Wildlife Trust is extremely proud of all its employees whose expertise, passion and knowledge allow us to protect and connect nature in Surrey. Here we celebrate five colleagues from different teams and what Pride means to them: 

 Abby Chicken (she/her) - Surrey Wildlife Trust Trustee 

I became a Trustee of SWT in November 2021.  In my day job I’m Head of Sustainability at Openreach - and I’ve always volunteered in some capacity. Pre pandemic I spent four years as Director of Volunteer Engagement at Pride in London, responsible for recruitment, training, deployment and wellbeing of 2000 volunteers for the biggest Pride event in the UK.  

Two things happened: first, my wife and I had a baby son in late 2019, and then we went into lockdown three months later. I spent my maternity leave hiking with my baby boy in a sling - and realised I wanted to devote more time to nature, to wildlife. I wanted to spend my time protecting nature so that our son could grow up in a world where nature thrives. I’d seen the Wild About Inclusion strategy and thought my experience in D&I and movement building, in building corporate partnerships and in volunteer strategy and safeguarding could be put to use.  

For me Pride is a focal point to support and include the LGBTQIA+ community,  because we cannot afford to be complacent about our rights: this week, reproductive rights in the US have gone back 50 years. There was a shooting in an Oslo gay bar. There is no guarantee of continued forward momentum.  At the same time, we need everyone to be active in the climate and biodiversity crises we face - only when this matters to everyone and everyone understands how to contribute will we really succeed. Inclusion is mutually beneficial. 

Stefen Hepburn (He/Him) Hedgerow Heritage Trainee/ Nature reserves Officer  

Hi, I’m Stefen, I’m 22 years old and have just begun my career in conservation! 

I joined the Trust in October and I have spent almost every day of winter since then hedgelaying and planting. You may have seen me billhook weilding volunteers about, or maybe you spotted me gushing about hedgerows to anyone who would listen. And if you haven’t met me, I’m obsessed with nature! 

It’s Pride month but sometimes I don’t feel proud. 

I often feel scared to be myself.  

But nature doesn’t care that I’m transgender. 

The trees are just trees and they don’t look at me funny and I don’t need to worry what they think. 

Nature has given me a safe space to exist. In nature I'm happy to be me.  

Some people may think that pride month is nothing to do with wildlife and conservation but they couldn't be more wrong!  

Having a community of visible and proud LGBTQ+ people in the Trust is so important, as just like nature, it has enabled me to feel safe, supported, and welcomed working in conservation.  

Pride is not just for LGBTQ+ people.  It’s also for friends, family, colleges, our volunteers, and members to be proud of making Surrey Wildlife Trust workspaces and volunteer groups inclusive, welcoming, and equal.  

Viki Webster (she/they) – PhD student on placement at SWT 

I always told my parents that I wanted to be a vet growing up. I loved all the James Herriot books and watching nature documentaries before school. In Year 10 I went for work experience on a cattle farm with the local vet. One of the cows was ill and I was so excited to see the diagnosis and treatment happen live in front of me! Those of you who have seen the diagnostic process for a pregnant cow with an upset tummy will not be as shocked as I was when the vet (and me who foolishly leaned in for a better look) left the field coated head to toe in the result of an upset stomach. Thus ended my veterinary aspirations. Since then, I have fallen in love with charismatic bumblebees, and devoted the majority of my academic career to date to studying them. I am still getting so many first experiences of nature outside the textbooks and I love every single one – muck and all!  

Pride for me is a time when everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community can come together to celebrate who they are and share in queer culture. It is a time to appreciate all the people who have struggled through history so that we can be comfortable and freely express our identities now. I am so grateful to everyone who came before me that I can be comfortable using my pronouns in the workplace, but I know that is not the case for everyone. There is still so much that needs to be done globally, nationally, and even locally to promote acceptance and inclusion. 

Ben Siggery (he/him) - GIS, Research and Monitoring Consultant 

I grew up loving Pokémon and dinosaurs, and this led to my love of the natural world. I've been with the Trust for nearly six years, starting with the Education team and more recently moving over into Research & Monitoring. I love the variety of my work - some days I'm out in the field looking for rare beetles and others I'm developing apps to support our projects team and citizen scientists.  

Nature is weird and wonderful and having a career in this sector is a never-ending learning journey. 

For me, Pride is a time to highlight our differences and celebrate them. I appreciate that probably sounds a bit odd, as you hear a lot about looking past differences, but being part of the queer community means you are different, in a fantastic way, but different none the less. Those differences have meant, and continue to mean, that our queer family around the world are not free to be themselves, not free to live their lives or to have the most basic civil liberties.  

This has changed dramatically, even within my lifetime, but there is still a long way to go - at home as well as abroad. So, for those of us lucky enough to live where we can celebrate our identities, we must. We must celebrate, we must be proud, we must educate but we must not forget and we must not stop fighting. 

Daniel Banks (he/him) – Citizen Science Officer 

I have always loved wildlife since a very young age. It has always fascinated me, and I am interested across the whole wildlife spectrum. Working at Surrey Wildlife trust has given me a lot of pride and joy as well as confidence. I learn something new every day. I am also involved in other projects - one with the British trust for ornithology, which is a ringing scheme, monitoring summer migratory birds. In my spare time I enjoy learning about all of nature’s wonderful creatures and educating my long-term partner about all the different birds and mammals we see when we travel to different sites. 

Pride for me, is a wonderful way to celebrate who we are, helping us to feel comfortable and safe in what can be a troubling world. I think it is important to know that there are LQBTQ+ people working in these organisations, by spotlighting them.  

Your sexuality or label should not mean you are not capable of doing a certain job, as it has been in the past. It will also highlight to younger people who perhaps do not yet have the confidence or belief to be who they are yet, to hopefully feel more comfortable and realise they too could one day work for a great organisation like the wildlife trust.  

Things have changed so much in my lifetime and more people are now being who they are and not having to hide it, but there is still so much more to do. Spotlighting people like us can potentially help people to know they are not alone, we are here, and we are living our lives and carrying out our dreams and ambitions.