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Laïla El Métoui is an LGBTQ+ equity educator and motivational speaker whose work has reshaped how organisations engage with sexual orientation, gender identity and belonging. As the Founder and Chief Executive of Pride in Education, she is widely recognised for advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion across education, workplaces and public life. Drawing on lived experience as a disabled Arab lesbian, Laïla speaks with clarity and authenticity about visibility, safety and leadership, motivating audiences to move from passive support to active allyship. Her approach is practical, participatory and rooted in real-world change, making her a trusted voice in LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Laïla’s early career was shaped by education and community work, where she saw firsthand how LGBTQ people are often marginalised by systems that fail to reflect their lives. These experiences led her to establish Pride in Education, addressing the absence of inclusive policy, curriculum and workplace practice for LGBTQ staff and learners. She later founded LelmEducation to extend this work into wider organisational culture and leadership development. Alongside this, she was instrumental in founding SWANA Queers, previously known as UK Queer Arabs, creating a vital platform for LGBTQ people, and co-founding the Embassy Model Summits Series, which centres LGBTQ voices in dialogue with institutions and decision makers.
Her achievements demonstrate sustained and tangible impact within LGBTQ inclusion. Laïla has delivered education, training and advisory support to hundreds of organisations, embedding intersectional LGBTQ+ inclusion into leadership frameworks, safeguarding, and wellbeing and everyday practice. She founded and chairs Proud London Councils, connecting LGBTQ employee networks across local authorities to strengthen peer support and institutional change. Her community leadership includes securing more than £87,000 for charities through bid writing, providing extensive pro bono support to LGBTQ non-profit organisations and playing a key role in queering the ESOL curriculum in the UK, ensuring LGBTQ learners see themselves reflected and protected. Her work has been recognised through honours including the Love Queer Top 100 Trailblazer list, the Diva Power List, Top 20 Lesbian Trailblazers, repeated inclusion in the National Diversity Power List Top 50 and being named Stonewall Lesbian Role Model of the Year.
Laïla is hired as a motivational speaker because she inspires LGBTQ inclusion that is confident, informed and actionable. She motivates audiences by combining personal insight with proven strategies that improve safety, representation and belonging. Fluent in ten languages and experienced across education, public sector and corporate settings, she equips leaders, allies and LGBTQ communities with tools to create visible, lasting change. Organisations book Laïla to energise Pride initiatives, strengthen allyship and build cultures where LGBTQ people can thrive openly and safely.
Laïla El-Métoui is regularly booked to engage audiences at events, read their latest feedback below:
” We’ve had extremely positive comments from everyone at the company. Lots of eye-opening statistics and perspectives were shared and Laila lead the conversation brilliantly. Thanks again for connecting us and we’d love to have Laila back in the future for another session. “
“Thank you SO much for yesterday! It was brilliant, we’ve had such good feedback from everyone who was involved. It was really informative, engaging and fun – but also really eye opening, and has been a brilliant educational piece for us whilst we celebrate Pride. It was exactly what we hoped for, so thank you so much.”
“Thank you so much for the session today! We are receiving wonderful feedback, especially from our Working Parents Group. We had 56 participants at the peak whole we expected 30-50 people, and most people stayed engaged throughout, which is difficult to sustain on Zoom… Again thank you for this discussion, I feel like we are leaving the world slightly better than it was this morning, one discussion at a time”
“We just finished a really fantastic session with Laila. Just wanted to feedback that we’ve had extremely positive comments from everyone at the company. Lots of eye-opening statistics and perspectives were shared and Laila lead the conversation brilliantly. Thanks again for connecting us and we’d love to have Laila back in the future for another session.”
“Thank you very much for recommending Laila, she was frankly excellent. The session was interactive, reflective and very informative and people felt comfortable to join in.”
“We have just wrapped up our talk with Laila- which was brilliant! Very informative and engaging. Some feedback from the end of the talk:
Thank you so much Laila, this was very enlightening! Brilliant talk.
Really thought-provoking and fun too. Thank you so much, Laila.
Thank you Laila and to those who organised this session! Very useful and informative.
Please do pass on our thanks to Laila for such a fun, engaging and insightful quiz and talk.”
“Thank you for your responsiveness and adaptability in organising this speaker event. I have already received really positive feedback from the attendees, who have all learnt a lot throughout the session. Laila was clearly an expert in the field, and could answer any questions that were asked. The presentation she delivered was really dynamic and interactive, the attendees particularly appreciated the use of the Kahoot quiz. Laila’s positive energy and passion for the topic made the whole session captivating, and she succeeded in engaging the audience from start to finish. We look forward to having her in the office again in the future. We will be in touch for future bookings!”
“Thank you for connecting us with Laila. She was an absolute gem, and we had a very interactive session.”
“We are so grateful to Laila for coming to the session… we have received lots of positive praise from people who found Laila really engaging and the quiz and videos were particularly thought-provoking and entertaining”
“I just wanted to thank you for your presentation at Mention Me this week. I had to rush off to another meeting so didn’t get to thank you at the end, but I absolutely loved it. It felt like it was a fabulous education in some of the foundation blocks of diversity and privilege. I personally learned a lot. And you delivered it in such an engaging way. Absolutely brilliant. I’ve suggested we get all of our new joiners to watch the video of it as part of their onboarding”
“I could not finish my day without sending a note of thanks to you for your wonderful session today! As I said on the call, you learn most when the topic is enjoyable and today’s one-hour with you was both hugely enjoyable and hugely enjoyable! You made the content accessible and relevant, and your positive personality flowed throughout the session and allowed us to feel fully engaged on this important topic. I’ve taken loads of notes to think about again, but I have two favourite moments from today. The first was around privilege and the ‘Wheel of Power/ Privilege’ – I have never seen this (sensitive) topic dealt with so deftly, and in such a non-confrontational way – that was very powerful. The second was around your very final remark – ‘we are not looking for agreement, we are looking for acceptance’ – that too, was a wonderfully strong statement, which will allow those with strong anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments to move beyond ‘agreement’. Thank you again for the generosity of your time and support for our Xpression 3rd birthday event.”
“Laila was wonderful. The format of the session and the way she delivered it have been engaging and eye-opening. We had around 30 people joining the session, and everyone gave good feedback, in particular about her objectiveness when sharing her life journey, and the quiz format to deliver key information about LGBTQ+ history. I will definitely recommend her as a speaker.”
“I want to thank you and Laila for the AMAZING lecture yesterday, it was super interesting! I already want to hear more materials from Laila”
“Some takeaways and feedback from the session include: ‘This has been so eye-opening, thank you, Laila!’, ‘Fantastic session – so insightful – thank you!’, ‘This has been a great session, I’ve learned a lot from it, thank you so much Laila’, ‘Thank you for a very interesting, insightful and thought-provoking session. At times it may have been a little painful… or at least it reminded me of some painful personal experiences’, ‘It was a great event – the What is Privilege video is really powerful’ and ‘It was an insightful and good session. It opened my mind in a number of areas’. We would love to work with you again for a future session as it was a great success”
“Just want to echo Jess and say that Leila’s presentation was really well received, people were saying such positive things as they left the board room we were joining from, please pass on our gratitude to her.”
The LGBT Speakers Agency has been one of the UK’s leading bureaus for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender speakers since 2020. We supply speakers for corporate and public events across the world, and cater to both in-person occasions and online webinars. Our roster includes athletes, psychologists, celebrities and more, to ensure that audiences of all demographics receive tailored, impactful strategies for inclusion.
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