I have spent around 15 years working in and around London's LGBTQ+ corporate and community spaces, and there is something I have been reluctant to write about for a very long time. Partly because I don't enjoy conflict. Partly because some of the people involved have...

I recently read Michele Simon’s article, When Everyone Turns Against You: Betrayal at Work, and it stopped me in my tracks.

She describes four different layers of professional betrayal: betrayal by an individual, by an organisation, by colleagues and, finally, by a wider professional network. I recognised more of it than I would have liked.

Most of the businesses I've created didn't begin with me deciding that I wanted to start a business. They began with something annoying me. More specifically, I could see something that people needed, and I couldn't understand why it was so difficult to find or...

For a long time, I treated the different parts of my professional life as though they belonged in separate boxes. There was corporate Naomi. LGBTQ+ community Naomi. Entrepreneur Naomi. Film Naomi. Depending on where you knew me from, you might have known one of them...

There is something slightly surreal about looking back at the different awards events I've been involved with. At one end are grassroots awards created because the communities I worked with weren't being adequately recognised elsewhere. At the other is the British...

In May, I had the privilege of giving the opening speech at the British LGBT Awards, an event I have worked on behind the scenes through my role with SPM Group way back in 2016/17 and again since 2025, but this year I found myself experiencing it from a very different perspective.

For years, there were situations I couldn't quite understand. I could walk into one room and be completely comfortable, talk to people, make connections, participate and probably talk far too much, and then walk into another, apparently similar environment and almost...

One of the questions I hear surprisingly often when talking to people about lesbian and sapphic films is, "Is it on Netflix?" It's an understandable question. Most of us have a handful of streaming services we regularly use and, over time, those platforms have become...

When we first started exploring investment in sapphic film, there was an obvious question. Can it actually make money? There is no shortage of people willing to talk about the cultural importance of LGBTQ+ storytelling. I agree with them. Representation matters...

I have been thinking a lot about the current EHRC guidance, the reaction to it, and the increasingly hostile way conversations about sex, gender, women’s spaces and trans inclusion are playing out. I don’t pretend to have a perfect solution. I wish I did. What I do...

I've spent years working with lesbian and sapphic films, filmmakers and audiences, and there are certain statements I hear repeatedly. There isn't an audience for lesbian films. Lesbian films don't make money. Audiences won't pay for independent content. Filmmakers...

I've organised events with almost no budget, worked on major professional events with substantial infrastructure behind them, and experienced plenty of things in between. The scale changes. The number of people involved changes. The spreadsheets definitely get bigger....

One of the things I've come to understand since finding out I'm autistic is just how much of my brain is constantly working in the background. Pattern recognition is one of my greatest strengths. It's incredibly useful professionally and is probably behind a lot of...

I'm back in London. It's January 2025 and, after spending much of the last year rebuilding myself in Folkestone, coming back feels significant. Not because everything is suddenly fixed. It isn't. Not because I have worked everything out. I definitely haven't. But...

2021 has been a year of discovery for me. Ok so I know, it has taken me 39 years to understand me - but that apparently is pretty normal for women with autism according to hundreds of news and lifestyle articles I'm seeing these days. Yes I am autistic. So how did I...

Today saw some progress towards resolution and closure. I decided to break the cycle and try to stop the hurt. I called out the negative correspondence we both were sending, and gave context to the communication. I explained how and why I was hurting and how she was...

Well I’m back to reviewing all things lesbian, bi and queer on the scene in the UK. I’ve had some time away to rediscover who I am, what I want and now I’m back. For the previous 5 years I’ve had an editor, someone to either write the reviews, or to edit the reviews –...

Well I did not see myself here. My best friend, business partner, sould mate and wife is gone. In her place a stranger. Our love, trust and closeness gone. Bang. Everything I thought was in my future, gone. The last five or so years have been fun and challenging in...

They say film is like life, and life is like film. How true that sentence is, but is this because life imitates art, or is it because in some way you can link your life to anything if you look hard enough. I believe it is the first, pure coincidence which makes you...

What is it about time, if you’re not careful you blink and suddenly hours have passed. Life is moving quickly and important dates fly around each year more quickly. I’m sure an hour is shorter than it used to be, yet we seem to move, speak, and carry out other tasks...

Ok, so hopefully the title got you interested, if only because you were laughing at the thought that any gay films could actually be comedy-based and be worth watching. Trust me, after this week I can confirm that they can, although I can also confirm that some really...

Isn’t it funny how what you wear can affect your mood? Yesterday I woke up and decided that summer was here, or at least I could help push it along! So I got up and put on a lovely pink floral dress with a brown hem (my latest purchase from the Rocha range at...

This week I am planning my birthday party. The last few years I haven't actively celebrated growing one year older, so I decided it was time to do something fun and bring all my friends together - especially as I've only recently got back in touch with a few of the...