My Coming out on Linkedin for Pride

This article was written by Jessica Barlow, founder of No Agency Method.

I’m Jess. I started two businesses in the pandemic. The first is focused on changing how care is being delivered in Hackney and the second is democratising PR and making it possible for startups to do it themselves. I chose to come out on LinkedIn, and it landed with a bang. In fact, two posts in a row went viral and were seen by 125,000+ people (and growing!) I chose to come out like this because to be honest, I really missed not having a physical pride event this year. It's my favourite day of the year, it just makes me so happy. I guess my way of feeling like I had marched at pride this year was to out myself on Linkedin. I'm a femme lesbian, and my passing privilege means I get typecast as straight, so I also knew it would be a surprise to a lot of people when I did come out. I am out and proud in all areas of my life, and I have been lucky to be out within my previous workplaces, but I have always been a bit conscious of LinkedIn.

I thought it was perhaps a bit too much to go all out and share my point of view on pride marketing, for example, specifically on LinkedIn. I worried about being attacked for it, even though I'm really vocal about this with people face to face! I felt like I would be judged, and I was worried it’d affect me professionally. What changed this for me, I think, is that for the first time in my life I am not an employee: I am now a founder, and I suppose that gave me inherent courage to do a coming out post. What I didn’t expect was the outpouring of love, support and overwhelming kindness that came back to me. It was beautiful! There were two other people working within the creative industry who also did similar posts after resonating with mine - there were mothers and fathers in my DMs telling me about their LGBTQ+ children, there were closeted women thanking me for my visibility. There were also some trolls, but let’s not give them any air time!

I volunteer with an LGBTQ+ charity called London Friend, offering crucial support group and counselling services to adults. From the work I have done with them, I know I am lucky in my personal circumstances that mean I can be out in my life, and if I can keep being visible to help even one other person feel like they can see other queer people out there achieving, I'm happy to be that person.