Marriage equality and LGBTQI rights is something that LUSH, globally, feels incredibly strongly about. We believe that no one’s love should be illegal and stand alongside the LGBT community as they strive for universal equality and acceptance. Love is intrinsic to the human experience. We will continue to stand up for what we believe in. Equal People. Equal Rights. Equal Love. This Valentine’s Day, in the spirit of love and acceptance, we are running a campaign featuring Thom, from our Bondi Junction store, Sydney and Mems from Parramatta, Sydney. Welcome to our very own LUSH love story.
Equal Love LUSH Valentine’s Day
Meet Mems
How long have you worked for LUSH? I’ve worked for LUSH for about two and a half years! Tell us about your LUSH journey. I started at Doncaster lush as a casual and felt immediately at home. I became the in store trainer after about a year of working there and spent the next year there in that role, which I loved. I met Thom at the ‘Train the Trainer’ conference last March. Last year I moved up to Sydney to become the trainee manager at Parramatta. It’s been an amazing ride so far. My favorite part of working for Lush is the campaigning we do on a range of issues. It’s what drew me here in the first place!
Tell us a bit about your personal journey. The past few years have been full of changes for me. I’d been so afraid of coming out as transgender because I was convinced that the people around me wouldn’t accept me, while in some cases I was right, overall the support I received was more than I could have hoped for. I’ll never forget my then-manager’s reaction when I came out, in the first few months of working at Doncaster. She gave me the biggest hug and told me she was proud of me. The whole team was so incredibly supportive, and that shouldn’t be a big deal, but workplace intolerance and discrimination is a huge issue for most trans people in Australia. I was so relieved. I think the hardest part of transitioning was the ten months or so that it took my Dad to accept me; he really struggled, and our relationship suffered badly for it.
However he came around, and we’re as close as ever now I don’t know how I’d have coped with that without all the support I got from my friends, both in Lush and outside of Lush. I’m pretty jealous of New Zealand; they have amazing mountains, lakes, forests AND marriage equality. I think Australia is catching up; it was a big step when Victoria moved to legalise adoption between same sex couples, and moved to recognize overseas same sex marriages within the same month, last November, but we definitely have some catching up to do. What do you do for each other as little pick me ups or just to show some love? Thom makes me tea, buys me cute pairs of socks, and sometimes gets me roses to cheer me up. It’s incredibly sweet!
Equal Love LUSH Valentine’s Day
Meet Thom
How long have you worked for LUSH? I’ve been working at Lush for about the same length of time as Mems, maybe a little longer, we’ve got pretty much the exact same Lush journey! What do you do for each other as little pick me ups or just to show some love? As for the little pick-me-ups and ways to show his love, Mems loves to come running to meet me at the door when I come home after work or having been out and about, and gives me big hugs and kisses – which is particularly nice after a tough day on the shop floor! He also bakes me surprise cakes if he knows I’ve had a pretty rough day he’s so sweet I also get LOTS of snuggles and cuddles in bed and on the couch! Tell us about your LUSH journey. I started at Lush Dunedin in New Zealand, and it was such a natural progression! I met Mems at the “Train the Trainer” in 2015 and what a classic, fairytale story it was, too! We both saw each other at different points on the first day, and that was that. We were hooked from first sight!
We helped each other out with work stuff, started to hang out more and more, and I may or may not have flirted over messenger with the help of Pusheen stickers things just grew from there. we became boyfriends, and he came to visit me in Dunedin for about 10 days, later in the year – a welcome relief from the long-distance! Tell us a bit about your personal journey. The last couple of years have been great for me, in terms of solidifying who I am and what I identify and connect with. I know I’ve had it lucky with the reactions of my family and friends and acquaintances, how they’ve reacted to me coming out at the various stages that I did. My parents have always been very loving and supportive, and, ever since we were little, have told me and my sister that they would love us no matter what. I know lots of people don’t have that luxury or that comfort and security, which makes Lush campaigns and the differences that we can make in our everyday lives so much more important
