I learned how to read a room long before I ever walked onto a construction site. Growing up queer, you become remarkably good at noticing the things other people probably don’t think twice about. You listen to the way people talk when they don’t know someone like you is in the room. You hear the jokes and the casual comments. You work out who feels safe and who doesn’t, and somewhere along the way you learn how to edit yourself accordingly. Which parts of yourself you can show, which parts...

There is a conversation that keeps happening between social enterprises in construction, and it almost never happens publicly. It happens in the quiet moments after industry events, in phone calls that start as introductions and end as debriefs, in the relief of realising someone else has had the same experience you thought was unique to you. Eventually the same question always comes up. Why are we involved in the tender, but not in the job? For a long time I assumed the answer was us. We...

This year’s Wear it Purple Day theme is Bold Voices, Bright Futures. It’s a message filled with hope. Hope that young queer people can...