Celebrating Black History Month: Lady Phyll
"When we rise together, we are mighty.” - Lady Phyll
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, widely known as Lady Phyll, is the Executive Director of Kaleidoscope Trust, an LGBT+ charity that works to defend and uphold human rights.
Sir Stephen Wall, Chair of the Board at Kaleidoscope Trust said about Lady Phyll: “From her work advocating for the rights of workers to leading one of the most impressive and effective pride organisations in the world, Lady Phyll has demonstrated that she has the personal qualities and professional skills to ensure our increased impact across the world. She brings to Kaleidoscope Trust a perspective, passion and set of skills that an organisation like ours needs to help address and redress the oppressive colonial legacies from which so many are trying to break free.”
She is also the co-founder and executive director of UK Black Pride. Black Pride is the first event of its kind in Europe celebrating “LGBTQ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Latin American descent… to promote and advocate for the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual health and wellbeing” of these communities.
Lady Phyll has also worked for Public and Commercial Services Trade Union as their Head of Equality & Learning. Constantly vocal on issues of race, gender, and sexuality, Phyll is a formidable voice in the fight for equality for queer people of colour. She has sat on the Trades Union Congress race relations committee and is currently a trustee of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans rights charity, Stonewall. Phyll publicly refused an MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours.
According to Lady Phyll activism is less of a choice for her and more of a birthright: “Some of us are born with a nagging, persistent and stubborn feeling that we are part of the solution, and I’m one of those people…I decided to follow my gut and engage with the work, but it often feels bigger than me. My lineage, like that of much of the diaspora, is one of fighters, agitators and activists. I have inherited a strength that I think would be hubristic to call my own.”
Lady Phyll has over 20 years’ experience as an LGBTQ+ rights activist and anti-racism campaigner. She has spent a decade advocating for the rights of workers within the largest civil service union as a lead negotiator on behalf of Civil Service workers
Talking about her views of the future, Lady Phyll stated she is committed to a world free from “racism, sexism, misogynoir and discrimination.” She visions a world in which “LGBTQ youth don’t take their own lives. A world where women walk down the street unbothered. A world that is safe for my daughter and my daughter’s daughter.” In this space, the gender binary has been dismantled and people are embraced for “who they are, with no exceptions.” This world is free from shame and racist violence against Black and Brown bodies. “It is a world that honours our lives, spirits and dreams. A world we deserve to live in.”
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