Pride Month Special
Pride at UK Universities
Love is love. Celebrate Pride Month with us! Read below two experiences at UK Universities and learn the essence of ‘Pride’ in these Universities.
Pride at King’s College UK
Marie is a Project Access team member finishing her bachelor at King’s College London.
Starting university often comes with many expectations and worries, especially when it also involves moving to a new country. One of my biggest worries before coming to King’s was the fear of not belonging there. Indeed, having moved to a new high school for my final year, I had found it very hard – or almost impossible – to be open about my sexual orientation and thus to truly be myself among my classmates. Thus, I had decided to be totally open and proud of my bisexuality once I would start university even if I was worried about feeling excluded because of that decision. However, such concerns quickly disappeared after my first few months of university.
Throughout my three years of undergraduate study, I realized that King’s was an LGBTQ+ friendly university in the sense that both LGBT+ staff and students were supported and represented within the university. In addition to organizing many great events for Pride month every year, King’s has a strong LGBT+ society whose goal is to provide a safe and inclusive environment for LGBT+ students to meet, campaign and share their experience. They organize various types of events such as movie screenings, club nights, coffee socials and workshops so everyone can find something that matches their interests. Moreover, it is important to emphasize that KCL LGBT+ society welcomes both students who have been open about their gender identity or sexual orientation for years but also students who are only slowly starting to question their identity. In this way, this is a very inclusive society that does its best to make students who attend their events feel comfortable and safe. As a fresher, I participated in several activities of the KCL LGBT+ society with my friends and that reassured me a lot to see such a strong and welcoming LGBT+ community at my university. In general, I believe that joining and getting involved in a society in first year is the best way to make new friends who share similar interests. Thus, my advice for any LGBT+ student starting university in September and feeling a bit anxious about it would be to give a try to their LGBT+ society.
Today, I am really happy to realize that most of my university friends are part of the LGBT+ community or are at least strong advocates of LGBT+ rights. I have actually not met most of them at LGBT+ specific events which also shows how big the LGBT+ community at King’s is and how intersectional some societies can be even when they are related to diverse causes and activities. As a young LGBT+ woman, it is important for me to have LGBT+ friends that make me feel understood and comfortable when sharing issues that they might experience as well. In this way, I have been feeling very lucky to study at King’s and find a large LGBT+ community which made me feel welcome and proud of who I am.
Finally, I believe it is important to remember that what I shared in this article was part of my personal experience as a young bisexual woman studying at King’s and that some people might have a very different experience from mine. Indeed, even if I personally did not experience any type of harassment related to my sexual orientation during my time at King’s, I am aware that bullying and harassment of LGBT+ students and staff still exists. To fight against that, King’s has harassment policies and procedures in place in order to make sure that our university remains a safe environment for the LGBT+ community.
Pride at University of Warwick
Zosia is a Project Access team member finishing her bachelor at University of Warwick.
I’ve once seen someone describe the LGBTUA+ scene at the University of Warwick as “pretty damn massive and incredibly active”. I understand where the person was coming from — after all, there is a variety of successful initiatives at Warwick to help the LGBTUA+ community thrive!
At core of these efforts is Warwick Pride, a society for LGBTUA+ students and their friends. Pride is one of the biggest societies on campus, and organizes a variety of socials, awareness campaigns, and other events. They have an active Facebook group, and there is always something to be involved in! The society is very friendly and inclusive, and ensures that all members feel comfortable being themselves. For example, those new to the society are invited to join the “Parenting Scheme” (ie the Befriending Scheme), where each new person is assigned two existing members to help you get involved with the society.
The society is not alone in supporting the LGBTUA+ community. For example, the Terrace Bar (the most popular bar at the university) hosts a night for all Warwick LGBTUA+ students and allies on Tuesday Week 5 of every term. They have special cocktails and mocktails, colourful decor, and great music!
Moreover, each year the Warwick Students’ Union organizes “Pride Week” (usually in week 9 of term 1), which aims to educate all students about LGBTUA+ identities, community, and history. Some of the events are watching a documentary on Trans History of Pride, or attending a talk on “Narratives of Queer Islam: History, Politics, Protest”. Yet the Students’ Union is active beyond this one great week — the Trans Students’ Officer and the LGBTUA+ Students’ Officer represent the special interests of students all year round.
These initiatives are a great step in the right direction, but of course there always remains more to be done to help the LGBTUA+ community. At Warwick, both the university and the students’ union proved in the past that they are willing to improve — all students are encouraged to push for new changes and leave their mark!
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