My Pride Story: “I came out at 15 but worried about being open in a law firm”

I came out to friends and family at the age of 15. I was living in a market town called Macclesfield at the time where there was no visible LGBT community and although there were over 1,000 students at my secondary school, I was not aware of anyone who was openly gay at the school. This made coming out a rather daunting experience, as I felt like I was treading on unchartered territory – I had no idea how people would react.

Fortunately, my friends and family were very supportive and even my teachers and local parish priest went out of their way to make me feel welcome and at ease, which was rather unexpected. Not long before I came out I heard that a friend of a friend had been asked by his parents to leave the house because he was gay. He was only 16.

I had been subject to homophobic comments on the street from strangers regarding my sexuality, even before I knew I was gay. I therefore had low expectations and anticipated a difficult journey. I consider myself very fortunate to have had such an underwhelming coming out experience.

When I was considering a career in the law, I remember being concerned about whether it would be acceptable to be openly gay and work in the profession. I was not aware of any LGBT role models in law specifically, and at law school there were only a handful of openly gay men. I had big ambitions for my career: I dreamt of becoming a Law Lord (now referred to as a Supreme Court Justice), but looking at the bench, I could not see much diversity – after all, if they could only manage one female Law Lord in the history of the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court), I was not confident of my chances as a gay man.

For completely unconnected reasons, I eventually decided that the Bar was not for me and that I would be better suited to a career as a solicitor. When I was applying to law firms, I remember my dad suggesting that, to err on the side of caution, it would probably be best if I did not mention my sexuality on my application form, in case it did not work in my favour. But just like someone being told not to push the red button, I went ahead and disclosed my sexuality on my application form anyway.

In my mind, any law firm that would treat me less favourably because of my sexuality was not somewhere I wanted to work. Sure, I really wanted a career in the law, but I was not going to join a law firm that would not accept me for who I am.

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