Pride is held in June of every year to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, June 1969, where black trans women led an uprising that made a stand against violence and discrimination aimed at LGBTQA+ people.
Today, Pride brings together a community of people who represent many different identities and cultures. The events are a huge celebration of diversity as well as acknowledgment of some of the hard-won freedoms of the LGBTQA+ communities around the world. Pride also acts as a reminder of how much more still needs to change and be done to ensure that LGBTQA+ are supported and included.
For this year’s LGBTQA+ Pride month, we want to highlight your stories using your own words and voice. We would like to celebrate stories of your personal journey, individuality, your community, and being proud of who you are. We would love to hear your personal experience of what pride means to you.
We welcome stories from students and staff who are members of the LGBTQA+ community, as well as allies. These spotlight profiles will be published in internal, external and social media communications to mark and celebrate Pride 2021.
We are always looking for more people from a range of backgrounds to be featured in our spotlight profiles. We use LGBTQA+ as an inclusive, all-encompassing term to represent the full range of sexual orientation and gender identities. We are particularly keen to have spotlight profiles from more marginalised groups within the LGBTQA+ community to understand your experiences, for example, LGBTQA+ people of faith, LGBTQA+ people of colour, LGBTQA+ disabled people, older LGBTQA+ people, and LGBTQA+ parents or carers.
We want to foster a community here at Queen Mary where people can celebrate their identities, diversity and what makes you, you.
Tell us your story and let us know what pride means to you!
Please send your submissions to George Lonergan at g.lonergan@qmul.ac.uk, with the subject line 'What Prides means to me Submission 2021'.
Please provide us with some information about what you're studying, a bit about yourself, a picture of yourself, and your pronouns. Your profile will be included in Queen Mary internal and external communications to mark Pride 2021.
Submission deadline: Friday 28 May
Max 300 words