From closeted, to out and proud in the workplace.

Josh Frampton opens up about his experiences growing up gay.

Undergraduate Placement Student at AstraZeneca, Josh Frampton, opens up about growing up closeted in a conservative seaside town, to now fully embracing his sexuality and educating his colleagues around him, focusing on further inclusion of the queer community within the workplace. 

Completing his final year of his masters in Natural Sciences, Josh has only since been open about his sexuality with prior struggles as coming out as a gay man, but he now sees his journey as a strength and takes great pride in using his voice to help colleagues in his workplace become better allies. 

Josh said “I grew up in a very small conservative area where everyone knows everyone, not very ethnically diverse, and not very sexuality or gender identity diverse in that respect. So growing up and being different wasn't really expected, no one really talked about it and no one really educated anyone on it.” 

“Through school and through sixth form I was very closeted about it, anytime the word gay was said, I would get 28 eyes looking at me from across the classroom. I was in an uncomfortable position because again, I still didn't really know who I was, but everyone around me was telling me that I was this certain way.” 

During the pandemic Josh came out to his close circle of people and started to slowly open the closet door, beginning his journey of self-discovery. 

He said “I think saying the words, ‘I'm gay’, are probably the two scariest words I could ever muster. And every time it feels like, even now, I feel like I'm pushing myself off a cliff just to say it. 

“And that's a couple of years after officially coming out. It's a lot of internal homophobia, I know in my head that there's nothing bad about it at all, that it's a strength, and I should be really happy about it. 

“I think during my last year of university is when I became more comfortable saying ‘I’m gay’.”

It was when Josh joined AstraZeneca that he fully shined a light on his sexuality and had his breakthrough moment of truly accepting who he is.

He added  “There was a selection of lanyards. There was a black one with a rainbow, the progress pride flag. I was in that moment, I thought, right, I can either sit back and not even try and put myself out there, or I can try and be the person that I want to become and be comfortable at work. 

“So I said can I have the rainbow one and it was at that moment that I thought okay this is it I can do it now. I can be myself.”

Now a year on in his role, Josh has had many proud moments as a queer person, from educating colleagues on pronoun inclusion, joining an LGBTQIA+ resource group, and teaching others to use gender-inclusive language within the workplace. 

Josh said “It was my first big, proud queer moment. 

I've joined a subgroup of the Pride ERG, which is mainly focused on my department (Pharmaceutical Technology and Development). And from there, I've had the opportunity to meet so many great people, but also put on events and help other people in my department learn about improving LGBTQIA+ inclusion. For example, learning about not just pronouns, but what certain pronouns mean.”

AstraZeneca as a workplace has really opened a door for Josh within his queer identity and now he feels truly himself. 

Josh said “I've had the opportunity to learn from people, role models in the queer community who are at AstraZeneca. That has been the biggest benefit to me because relating back to university but also growing up in Dorset there was nothing like that.

“I didn't know what a non-binary person was, I didn't know what a transgender person was, I didn't know that these people existed. But now these amazing queer role models have educated me and I've then been able to educate other people.”

Josh uses his experiences for strength and reminds queer people, "Your identity is your identity and however you want to express that, is up to you.”

LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION WITH JOSH ON THE PROUD TO BE QUEER PODCAST:

ASTRAZENECA, A FOUNDING SPONSOR OF THE QUEER STUDENT AWARDS, ARE SPONSORING THE QSA2023 ‘ROLE MODEL OF THE YEAR: EDUCATION’ CATEGORY - see the full shortlist here.