Celebrating Kentucky Fried Pride in the UK & Ireland

KFC UK & Ireland recently launched Kentucky Fried Pride, a LGBTQ+ affinity group, in May of this year. Kentucky Fried Pride (or KFP) is one of three new affinity groups in the UK business along with RADIO, which focuses on ethnicity, and Wolf Pack, which focuses on gender. Watch out for more from them in the coming months…plus lots of intersectional activations!

Anyway, back to KFP. It’s for everyone at KFC including our restaurant teams. Anyone can sign up online and pledge to use their voice and influence to support visibility, safety, tolerance, love, diversity and inclusion of all LGBTQ+ people both within KFC and in the wider community. In return for making this pledge, we send them a pride pin and rainbow laces so that they can show their support for and affinity with the LGBTQ+ community at work. We also send them regular updates about what the group is up to and opportunities to get involved.

We had a key activation at the end of August where we asked our teams to ditch their uniforms (for the week!) and ‘wear their pride to work’ in support of LGBTQ+ and Pride values. The effort was super engaging, with teams around the country going “all in” both with their outfits and decorating their restaurants - and the team and our guests loved it! We also took inspiration from the stories and experiences of some of our KFCers and shared various resources throughout the week. It’s also been key for recruitment and we’ve jumped from circa 400 to over 1300 members!

Of course, it’s not just about one week, it’s an always ON commitment to ensure that diversity of sexuality and gender identity at Team KFC is respected, supported and celebrated and to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive KFC community that reaches beyond our restaurant walls. And so, we will be working with the network to identify opportunities to make KFC and our restaurants even more inclusive for our team and guests, as well as working on training and other initiatives to educate and raise awareness.

The team is also incredibly proud to share that they have recently partnered with Stonewall, a LGBTQ+ rights charity in the United Kingdom (and the organization of its kind in Europe), to become a Diversity Champion – the first in the QSR industry! Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme is the leading employers’ program for ensuring all LGBTQ+ staff are free to be themselves in the workplace. Stonewall works with over 900 organizations across the UK. Every one of their Diversity Champions shares their core belief in the power of a workplace that truly welcomes, respects and represents LGBTQ+ employees.