Celebrating Pride Month

In our latest blog, undergraduate student Mevin Babu outlines the exciting events taking place on campus and beyond to celebrate this year’s Pride Month.

As exam season comes to a close, it’s a time for students to celebrate their hard work they’ve put in over the year. This just so happens to coincide with Pride Month, every June. This article aims to highlight events and opportunities to not only celebrate your identity, but explore LGBTQIA+ history, and connect with employers who also celebrate and embrace queer identities 

What is Pride Month?

Pride Month is not just a celebration of your identity but has historically been a protest for equality for the the LGBTQIA+ community, reflecting on the progress made in rights to date, and the continued momentum to maintain and advance them. Several events on and beyond campus are held to celebrate and uphold the progress made to date, and to connect with your community. This article outlines some of the events happening here at Warwick and nationally to help you celebrate pride this year! 

Campus events 

Pride Festival: 27th June  

Warwick is throwing its annual Pride festival at the Piazza on the 27th of June, from 2-8PM. With a healthy mix of music and games and other activities available, it’s a great way to celebrate your identity with your peers. An after party will also be running on the day in Copper Rooms, where you can celebrate with your friends at Loud & Proud Night (10pm-2am). 

Workshops

The university offers several insightful workshops that help you to question your perspectives, broaden your horizons, and learn more about queer history and identities, alongside the challenges and prejudice that comes with accepting and celebrating who you are. These workshops are tailored for both students, staff, and allies.

For example, workshops to help personal tutors create LGBTQIA+ safe spaces, and trans-inclusive teaching practices are being held. For students, Professor Hannah Jones is delivering their inaugural lecture on June 19th on Uncomfortable Positions- discomfort as a tool for understanding socio-political life which will explore the conflicts between the power for you to act, versus the restrictions you face.

Furthermore, workshops to build a trans inclusion toolkit (June 16th) and challenging homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia as an Active Bystander (Date TBC) are running this pride month as well. 

Beyond campus 

Local and national pride events 

Locally, Warwickshire Pride festival (22nd August) is just on your doorstep, where you can expect a Pride March, stalls, live performances, and much more. UK wide, there is London Pride (July 4th), Brighton and Hove Pride (31st July- 2nd August), Manchester Pride (August 28th-31st), and several other pride festivals taking place throughout the summer if you aren’t able to attend Warwick Pride this June. These pride events have been running for several years to help the nation connect, celebrate, and embrace their queer identities, as well as support them if you’re an ally. 

Employer networking 

Furthermore, there will be several employer-ran pride-related events to showcase their policies and stances on the community. These will be invaluable spaces to connect with other queer individuals within your field, network with employers and businesses that uphold LGBTQIA+ rights within their business practices and discover more about queer identities in business spaces. Keep an eye out on LinkedIn and WBS CareersPlus for these networking opportunities.