“It wasn’t until I started seeing senior role models, people creating safe spaces and being allies, that I felt I could be myself and then my career moved really positively because I could give all my time and focus to that. “And I recall how tiring and exhausting that could be in terms of hiding myself and keeping slightly distant from colleagues and I wasn’t putting 100% of my effort into my job. I didn’t feel that it was necessarily a safe space for me to be myself. “Earlier in my career – I am a gay woman – I didn’t feel comfortable being out. Samantha des Forges – the Ministry of Defence’s first ever diversity and inclusion director – is no stranger to feeling like an outsider.