Blog: Celebrating #PangolinPride!

Pride Month continues with nature educator and podcaster Jack on sharing the voices of the BIAZA LGBTQ+ community...  

Hello and Happy Pride Month! My name is Jack. I work for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland at Edinburgh Zoo, and in my free time I am the host of ‘Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast’. This show celebrates underappreciated conservation stories. Sometimes we talk about unusual species, sometimes we talk about brilliant projects, and sometimes we celebrate the stories of the brave, bold and beautiful people who are making real change in the world of conservation!

This year, to celebrate Pride Month, we have been running #PangolinPride - a series of 7 podcasts celebrating stories and voices from the LGBTQ+ Community. We have spoken to people from across the conservation sector, and discussed everything from Sloths in Costa Rica to Wildfires in California. The whole point of this has been to help provide the heroes that people need to feel welcome in the conservation space, and the heroes that I think most of us can say we never saw growing up.

Two amazing members of the BIAZA family took the time to speak to me about their stories. Firstly, I talked to Allie McGregor (Senior Communications Officer for RZSS) who discussed how RZSS overcame a barrage of homophobic and transphobic abuse during last year’s Pride Month. While this was exceptionally challenging, eventually love began to come to the fore and the organisation was celebrated for its response to the unnecessary hatred. Allie was an amazing guest as they shared what they learned from this experience, and what we can all take away from events like this.

Secondly, I talked to Andrew Mooney from Dublin Zoo. He discussed Dublin Zoo’s Conservation Master Plan and the role he played in its design and implementation. Plus, we discussed his career path and how we need to make the conservation career path more accessible to young people and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Both of these guests exemplify the very best of the conservation community and their stories have touched so many people. The podcasts have been streamed in over 100 countries worldwide and they have prompted a huge number of people to reach out with messages of thanks on social media. I am so grateful that they took the time to laugh, cry and chat with me. They are brilliant and I am so inspired by them!

I suppose that all of this is to say that nature needs us all, and all of us should feel safe and included when celebrating it. However, within the conservation sector that has not always been the case. It should be a priority of everyone within the BIAZA community to recognise this history, remove the barriers that have been established and open the doors of their zoo to everyone. Providing platforms for LGBTQ+ staff to have their stories heard and listening to those stories is one thing, but showing up and protecting your staff and visitors, and learning from the experiences of everyone within your community is also essential. Protecting the natural world only gets better when we include everyone!

One final thing to say is that if you are out there and someone has made you feel like conservation doesn’t need you, or that you don’t belong… they are wrong. You are valued, you are loved, and you are a necessary part of protecting the natural world. Happy Pride Month!

If you would like to listen to the series you can find it here: https://linktr.ee/pangolinpodcast

You can also follow the podcast on social media…

Instagram: @pangolinpodcast
Twitter: @pangolinpodcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PangolinPodcast
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pangolinpodcast