When Stuart Bruce Cameron began his career, about 20 years ago, the atmosphere at work meant he feared prejudice because of his sexuality. Cameron is gay. "I had finally come out to my friends, but that just made it harder to go into work on Mondays. I felt I had to hide so much of myself — what I had done at the weekend, the fact I had a boyfriend and so on," he told Business Spotlight.
Cameron's experience is common. According to the LGBTQ+ rights organization Stonewall, 35 per cent of employees who are LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer [or questioning]) have hidden their sexuality at work for fear of discrimination, and 18 per cent have received negative comments at work because of their sexuality.
Born in Geretsried, a Bavarian town with a population of about 25,000, Cameron sometimes felt like the "only gay person in the world" and moved to Berlin in the hope of meeting others from the LGBTQ+ community. After some time and a number of different jobs, he started working for a company at which he felt welcome. His job was to organize a job fair. While working on this, Cameron had an idea — he decided to create a fair with LGBTQ+ people in mind.
Small beginnings
In Berlin, in 2009, Cameron founded Europe's largest LGBTQ+ jobs and careers fair, called "Sticks & Stones", named after an English children's rhyme against verbal bullying. "Six companies showed up," Cameron laughs. "Six! We had a total of 200 people there. That's including the cleaning staff." However, Cameron believed that word just needed to spread — and it has. Today, more than 100 companies are represented and 3,000 visitors attend. The fair has even expanded to Cologne.
Young attendees seeking internships in inclusive companies mix with senior professionals who see an opportunity to network. Despite the fair's success, Cameron believes there is a long way to go. "We're still at the beginning," he says. "Everybody talks about inclusion, but there's so much to change. There's no quick fix. You have to change the culture."
What can companies do to promote inclusion at work? "You have to understand the status quo," Cameron says. "Before you do anything, you need to know where you are. Only then can you define targets and constantly review whether they're effective. You're not ticking off a bullet-point list, you have to continue to implement change. Leaders need these diversity skills, and it's not something to be passed off to HR," he says.
Sticks & Stones will take place on 1 July 2023, in the Verti Music Hall, in Berlin