Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not only belongs but thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo, and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in. Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect, and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show.

So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. And today is episode 122 with the title From Silence to Advocacy. And I have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Emma Riley. Emma is the program governance and operation manager for the Global Privacy Office of RX. And when I asked Emma to describe her superpowers, she says she is articulate enough to speak in high stress situations. Well, let's hope today isn't that stressful. Hello, Emma.

Welcome to the show.

Hi, Joanne. Thank you. Thank you for speaking with me.

Absolute pleasure. We met recently, I think, at, an event in London, and, you told me some of your story, which we'll get on to in a minute. I'm really fascinated to find out more. So I called this episode from silence to advocacy.

Do you

wanna give me a bit of history of what where where you've been over the last few years, I guess.

A few years, more like few decades. Short version. Yeah. So I I'm I'm gay, but I didn't really know that until sort of mid I don't know. And end of my teens, really, beginning in my twenties. But I I had a history of being bullied a lot at school, so quite quite silent in that sense and that, I didn't get a lot of chance to sort of speak at that point. I then joined the military, the Royal Navy. And again, silence was very much part of my identity there because at the time that I joined, it was illegal to be gay in the military.

So we can talk about what happened to me then, but basically what's happened since then is that I I've, tried to use my voice where I can to do a little bit of good, to try and change what happened to me into something that actually does does something better for the world than actually what happened to me. I hate bullying in all forms, and so I try and challenge that when I can now.

I I'm also ex forces. I I was in the I joined the RAF from school in 1981. That time when Charles Diana got married. It was that July. I joined in October. So and I I remember it was very it was drummed into you right from the very beginning around drugs are bad, being gay is bad. There's a lot of things are bad. Yeah.

Or we won't it's going to kill people, by the way, as well.

So Yes.

Yeah. There's the bad things you could do, but, actually, this is something you should you should be thinking about. And I always remember that that that there's sort of there's always this kind of humor about if you were gonna sit on someone else's bed, you had to make sure you have both feet on the floor, then it was okay. If you lift if you both have if if you well, you had to leave one foot on there. Otherwise, it's good

to see. It was one it was one foot on the ground. You had

to keep one

foot on the ground, which is fine, I suppose, if you're in the the bottom bunk. But in in in a ship, you've got 3 bunks, 1 on top of the other. So if you're on the top bunk, you've got no hope.

But it is definitely drilled into you in those days that, it was up it was there was no tolerance. And

Oh, absolutely. When when I joined, literally, the first thing you do when you walk through the gates of Raleigh is you go in, you get, sat down in this big sort of group room, and you get handed your contract to sign. And in the contract, it says that, homosexuality is illegal. So when I'm there, 18 years old, I only turned 18 about 3 weeks previous to joining. And I was I thought maybe I might be gay, but I wasn't sure. I'd never had any experience to actually confirm that. And and having spent all my school years being bullied quite a lot, what I wanted was that sort of belonging that you can get as part of the military. I wanted to belong to that tribe.