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Dreaming Pride with Lord Chris Smith
03 October 2024, 4:30 pm–6:00 pm
Join us for a Director's Seminar with Lord Chris Smith, member of the House of Lords & Head of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
UCL Institute for Global Prosperity02076795244
Location
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B40 Darwin LTDarwin BuildingGower StreetLondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
Lord Chris Smith will reflect on lessons for equality and diversity learned from a lifetime in politics and public life. He will tell the story of how he became the first MP in the UK to come out as openly gay; how he became the first openly gay Cabinet Minister anywhere in the world; and how the struggles to secure equality for LGBT+ people continue to this day. He will draw lessons about the necessity of equality, about the need for pride in difference, and about the fulfilment that can come from all people being able to be themselves.
Accessibility
An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.
About the speaker
Lord Smith is an eminent figure in British politics, having enjoyed a long and memorable career in public service, spanning several decades. Before his elevation to the House of Lords in 2005, Lord Smith served as a Member of Parliament with the Labour party. First elected to represent Islington South & Finsbury in 1983, Lord Smith made history shortly thereafter in becoming Britain’s first openly gay MP, and later, the country’s first openly HIV-positive Member in the Commons. As an MP, and later a cabinet minister under Tony Blair, Lord Smith has been a vocal champion for the LGBT+ community, supporting important legislative reform in a number of significant areas, including equalising the age of consent in Britain, introducing civil partnerships, and scrapping the country’s controversial ‘Section 28’ law. Since then, he has gone on to a number of other prominent leadership roles, including as chairman of the Environment Agency in 2008, and most recently, as Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, his alma mater.
About this event series
Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.