James said: "I spend most of my time out partying in East London and most of my friends are in the drag scene and queer spaces like that, so my life outside of work is very queer and hyperfeminine, but I am still the same person there that I am at the station. James is an operational fire officer at Dowgate Station READ MORE: Inside London's legendary LGBT+ bookshop that was the first in the UK where customers are 'like family'
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His life outside of the Fire Brigade exists within primarily queer spaces in East London and so his LGBT+ identity straddles his free time "being out with the girls and being at the station with the lads." James added that "what I want to achieve is to get rid of the mindset that fire stations can be uninviting places for diverse people." I wouldn't say it is very diverse but there are all these different people from different backgrounds that make up the workforce." James told MyLondon: "Before I joined I had some preconceptions but most of that ties into the idea that the fire service is lots of big burly men who are very narrow minded, when in fact LFB is a good representation of London in the sense that it is diverse. He has been in the job for a year and a half and in his time at the station he has joined their LGBT+ network, but admitted that it is often hard to meet other gay male firefighters in person. James, 24, is an operational fire officer at Dowgate Station, close to London Bridge. James Rodgers, a recent addition to the London Fire Brigade (LFB) spoke to MyLondon about his experience as a gay firefighter whose life outside of the fire service exists primarily within queer spaces.
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The preconceptions of the environment within a fire station can often be perceived to be a hyper-masculine space, but this is now an outdated mentality, according to an openly gay firefighter.