Celebrating Pride Month 2024 at UCL

30 May 2024

Pride Month takes place every June – read on for our round-up of events and key resources for students and staff, plus a foreword from Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Faculties) and LGBTQ+ champion on the University Management Committee.

The intersex inclusive pride flag. The flag shows horizontal rainbow stripes on the right hand side, and on the left hand side a chevron with black, brown, pale blue, pale pink, white and yellow stripes with a purple ring motif to the far left

Foreword from Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Faculties) and LGBTQ+ champion on the University Management Committee.

Pride Month means so many different things to different people, a reflection of the diversity of our community, friends and allies.

For some, it is a reminder of just how far we have come since the first Gay Pride parade in New York in 1970, a year after the Stonewall Riots were triggered by the NYPD raid on the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. Marches followed in other large US cities and the first UK Pride took place in London two years later, on 1 July, 1972. While it is a time to celebrate, Pride is also an important reminder, not just for the LGBTQ+ community but for the whole of society, that many people here and around the world continue to face oppression and marginalisation. And for others, participation in Pride is a much more personal moment in their journey as a member of our community.

This year marks 40 years since the seemingly unlikely alliance between a Lesbian and Gay group from London and Miners in South Wales, during the tumultuous months of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike – the longest strike in British history. As memorably captured in the 2014 film Pride, the group raised more money for the miners than any other fundraiser in the UK and included driving from London to South Wales in a minibus emblazoned with the logo LGSM: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. Those same miners showed their gratitude to the LGBTQ+ community by marching in Pride 1985, doing much to break down barriers and prejudices.

Returning to the present, this year marks new beginnings for me. In April I married Michael, my partner of sixteen years, and I retire from UCL at the end of July. It has been an honour and privilege to be the LGBTQ+ champion on the Senior Management Team and University Management Committee for the past twelve years. Thank you to everyone from Out@UCL and friends for your support and friendship – it has always been a great network. Whenever you go into Student Centre, see if you can spot the Out@UCL branding that I got in there to signal that building’s commitment to inclusivity.

Happy Pride!
Anthony Smith

Watch 'Pride' free of charge

The 2014 film Pride, mentioned above, is available on Box of Broadcasts (BOB) for educational purposes. Log in using your UCL credentials: Click 'sign in', choose UCL (University College London) as your home institition, and use your UCL username and password to log in.

Book recommendations for Pride Month

As part of Pride Month celebrations, UCL Library Services are compiling a list of book recommendations from across the UCL community about LGBTQ+ life in London. This could include books by or about famous LGBTQ+ people living in London, books set in important London LGBTQ+ venues or books celebrating London's LGBTQ+ community in all its diversity and beauty.

Share your book recommendations here!

Events

We'll be updating this page with additional events as they are announced so please do check back to see the latest updates! If you are hosting a UCL event for Pride Month that you’d like included in this article, please get in touch with the UCL Communications team.

Throughout June and beyond: Self-guided queer tour of Bloomsbury

In person, open to all.
The Queer Bloomsbury Tour is an open-access, self-guided tour that takes a wander through the neighbourhood’s queer past and present. Find all the tour materials and more information on the Queer Bloomsbury Tour website.

4 June, 7pm: The Aggressives + Behind Every Good Man- Film Screening

In person, open to all.
Join UCL Anthropology for a new film screening series, Spectra – Queer Non-Fiction Films, at UCL East. This series aims to highlight diverse and powerful narratives within the queer community through non-fiction cinema and kicks off with this screening of the groundbreaking documentary The Aggressives (2005), followed by the short film Behind Every Good Man (1967).

5 June, 2.30pm–4.30pm: Trans-inclusivity Seminar Series: 'Cancel Culture' and politics of vulnerability in queer/trans online spaces

In person/online, open to all.
Dr Kata Kyrölä will explore how notions of ‘cancel culture’ circulate online in relation to issues of sexual and gender diversity, and how conflicts around ‘cancelation’ speak to broader cultural-affective tendencies, theorised through politics of vulnerability, paranoid reading, and platform drama.

6 June, 10am: LGBTQ+ Parents and Families Group launch

Online, open to UCL staff and students.
Join us for the launch of this new group, co-chaired by members of the IOE LGBTQ+ Advisory Group. More information and contact details can be found on Staff News.

13 June, 1.30–4.30pm: Trans-inclusivity Seminar Series: Researcher's panel

In person, open to all.
Join this event to hear about the trans-inclusive work of a research fellow and four PhD students.

13 June, 6–7.30pm: Queering Urbanism: A Trans Urban Morphology

In person, open to all.
Join us for a talk by Simona Castricum on the vibrant, resistive sites of trans urbanism, community & artistic identity in Naarm-Melbourne.

18 June, 7pm: Anhell69 – Film Screening

In person, open to all.Join UCL Anthropology for a screening of Theo Montoya’s Anhell69, part of the new Spectra – Queer Non-Fiction Films series, at the UCL East One Pool Street Cinema. Conceived as a fictional project with a cast of queer friends in Medellín, Columbia, Anhell69 transforms into a powerful documentary about loss, defiance and refusal to accept a world that denies marginalised communities a future.

19 June, 10am–12pm: Pride banner-making workshop

In person, open to all.
Join Out@UCL at the IAS Forum (G17, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Main Building) to make banners and badges for Pride. All are welcome whether or not you're participating in UCL's Pride in London group this year, want to make banners for another Pride event, or just want to drop in and say hello. We will bring everything you need for banner and badge making, so all you need to do is show up! But if you wish, do bring your own markers, crayons, boards, old magazines (for badges) or other crafty things.

25 June, 1–2pm: Lunch Hour Lecture – The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights

Online, open to all.
Professor Phillip Ayoub (UCL Department of Political Science) draws on his new book with Kristina Stöckl to investigate the current challenges posed to LGBTI and women's rights in this Pride Month Lunch Hour Lecture - sign up to attend.

26 June, 1–3pm: Pride banner-making workshop

26 June, 1–5pm: Faculty of Brain Sciences LGBTQ+ Research Showcase

In person, open to UCL staff and students.
The Faculty of Brain Sciences’ LGBTQ+ Committee is organising its 2nd Annual LGBTQ+ Research Showcase. This event is open to all LGBTQ+ staff and students and allies at UCL. Work from LGBTQ+ early career researchers, as well as research into subjects related to the LGBTQ+ community, will be presented at the event, in addition to a panel discussion on issues affecting LGBTQ+ people in academia.

27 June, 5–8pm: Faculty of Population Health Sciences – United in Diversity: A Global Queer Celebration at UCL

In person, open to UCL staff
The Faculty of Population Health Sciences and the Pride Event Committee invite you to join us in celebrating LGBTQIA+ Pride 2024. The theme of this year’s event is “United in Diversity: A global queer celebration at FPHS” – expect food, music, entertainment with the SU Drag Society, a quiz and more! Sign up to join us on 27 June.

19 July 2024, 2–3pm: Diverse Founders’ Network panel discussion: Support for LGBTQIA+ founders

In person, open to all.
This panel discussion on support for LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs will be delivered in collaboration with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This event is free and open to all.

Reflections on Pride Month from around UCL

In this IOE Student Blog, Languages PGCE student Hugo reflects on ways to improve the representation of the queer community through languages teaching in London.

'Finding an LGBTQ+ community at UCL': A blog from an anonymous student on the Students' Union UCL website.

Resources and networks for students

Students’ Union UCL’s LGBTQ+ Network aims to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or any other marginalised gender or sexual identities.
Students’ Union UCL’s Trans* Students Network provides an opportunity for students self-defining as Trans* to be part of a community of their peers, providing events, support and resources.
Students’ Union UCL’s Gender Expression Fund provides financial assistance for students to purchase items that will make them more comfortable with their gender presentation.
UCL Student Support and Wellbeing have listed information and support for LGBTQ+ students, including our policy and guidance for those transitioning gender.

Resources and networks for staff

UCL’s LGBTQ+ Equality Steering Group is open to all lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer staff and those interested in promoting LGBTQ+ equality at UCL, and also steers the Out@UCL staff social network.
UCL’s Trans Network is for staff and mature and PhD students at UCL who identify as trans (including non-binary, genderqueer and all other identities not identical with the gender assigned at birth).
The LGBTQ+ STEM network is for members of the LGBTQ+ community allies working in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) discipline.