Pride Month 2024 – #shareyourstories
This Pride Month, we are championing our LGBTQIA+ members and staff, reflecting on the strides made – and work still to be done – in the legal sector by sharing their stories.

Anna McCole
(they/them)
Member Engagement Manager
“Lincoln’s Inn is the first workplace where I have truly been able to live openly in my own identity, without judgement, and, more often, with open encouragement.
When I started working here in 2021, I was unsure how diverse and accepting the community would be, given my own preconceptions of the institution and profession as a whole. I was pleasantly surprised to start working in a team with several openly LGBTQI people, and met many more LGBTQI staff and members over my first few months working here. It was within this environment that I felt comfortable to be open about my identity as a non-binary person and begin using they/them pronouns for the first time professionally.
I was also able to be involved in organising and attending the Diversity Dinner held in July 2022 for Pride month. I attended with my girlfriend, and it was incredible to be part of such an amazing event that sparked so much joy and feelings of acceptance amongst our membership. The incredibly positive energy and happiness in the room made the event something people still talk to me about to this day. It certainly is one of my happiest and proudest professional memories! I continue to wear the Pride pin I got at the dinner alongside my name badge to all of our events!
I was often unsure of becoming too ‘visible’ as an LGBTQI person in the workplace, especially with the current discord around gender identity, and always just wanted to be seen as another employee/colleague/friend. This has changed as I have spent more time working in such an accepting workplace. I’ve since understood you never know the impact you might have on someone who is looking for acceptance themselves, just by being a visible LGBTQI person. Even more so the impact you might have on people who don’t understand the community, especially when they may have never met anyone like you before.
I am grateful to the people who make up the Inn’s community for the support and encouragement to be myself and hope to continue to champion the visibility of LGBTQI people at the Inn and in the profession.”

Brie Stevens-Hoare KC
(she/her)
EDI Committee Member
“Lincoln’s Inn’s first Diversity Dinner for Pride in June 2022 was an extraordinary and gloriously gay evening. The LGBTQI community within Lincoln’s Inn stepped into the light in all it’s colourful, glittery finery. Coming out as a pansexual cis woman at the Bar early in the 1990s I spent the next 10 years or so navigated the Bar and the lawyers I engaged with in my practice alone. My chambers was supportive but I was alone, without any guidance or a role model. Then professional LGBT+ networks started up. I joined Freehold and helped found FreeBar. Networking at LGBTQ professional networks showed me how much of my energy was used up navigating the apparently heteronormative spaces that I work in every day. Making an assessment of those I meet and deciding whether to edit my conversation and myself, or not, removes joy and creates a barrier. All too often all of that is completely unnecessary, but you do not know that until you have spoken without editing and then, if it was necessary, it’s too late.
Becoming active in the Inn, particularly advocacy training and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), I was determined not to play that game anymore – I would just be me. Maybe not the full technicolour Brie all the time, but always true to me. I have found acceptance, support, and encouragement from the vast majority of those I have met and engaged with at the Inn. But the truth that Lincoln’s Inn has a lot of members and Benchers who are LGBTQI and many more who are genuine positive allies is not so obvious or visible. That truth was manifest that night in 2022. That truth was a source of joy and celebration for the community and its allies alike. NYC Pride’s theme this year is reflect, empower and unit. I have reflected and intend to use this year to empower my community in Lincoln’s Inn to connect and unite.”

Emily Aisher
(she/her)
CRM Administrator
“Having worked at the Inn for almost three years, I am yet to meet a closed-minded person amongst colleagues or members. Not only is this a place I feel welcomed and accepted, but it’s the first place I’ve worked where I’m not one of a handful of LBGTQIA+ people, rather I am one of many. It’s also refreshing to work in an environment that not only welcomes and includes people like me, but also actively celebrates us with events like the Diversity Dinner. As co-chair of the Staff Rep Group, I am proud to be a visible LGBTQIA+ professional, colleague and friend”.