Dr Michael Thomas is a lecturer in social work at Brunel University London
Friday 17 May marks the annual International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). This is a day when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their friends and allies come together to celebrate the freedoms we have fought for and to show support for people everywhere who experience discrimination, abuse and violence that is linked to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
What has all this got to do with Brunel? This year, we are flying the rainbow flag alongside the lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride flags at the Kingston Lane entrance to the campus. This is an important signal to staff, students, visitors and the wider community that we want to make Brunel a place that is inclusive of LGBT people.
We have an active LGBT Staff Network on campus that works closely with HR and the Union of Brunel Students to promote LGBT equality within the University. This July, we are sending a joint staff and student group to march under the Brunel banner at the London Pride celebrations: this is the first time we will have had this kind of joint presence from Brunel, and we will be marching not only as proud LGBT people, but as representatives of our University at this national event.
If you’re still reading this, some of you may be thinking that sexuality and gender identity are private matters that aren’t really relevant to the workplace or life at university. Others may think that LGBT people have achieved a kind of legal equality now, so we should stop complaining and get on with life. There’s nothing we would like better!
Working life is often stressful: this is even more the case if you have to constantly hide important aspects of your identity from colleagues, or if you experience discrimination in the workplace. This should be something that concerns us all. The University, and we as students and staff, have obligations under the Equality Act 2010 not to discriminate unfairly on a range of ‘protected characteristics’ that include sexuality and gender identity alongside other aspects of identity such as ethnicity, gender, age and religious belief.
We saw during LGBT History Month in February that LGBT staff are making an important contribution to the life of the University. We have world-class researchers across a range of disciplines investigating LGBT lives and history. Our collaboration with the Library and university archives showed that here at Brunel we have a fascinating, if sometimes overlooked, LGBT history all of our own.
The LGBT Staff Network is working with HR to develop more inclusive policies on staffing and student life (for example the new policy for transgender students, and staff policy on fostering and adoption), as well as raising the visibility of LGBT issues across campus. But there is a long way to go before we can sit back and call it a day.
On behalf of the LGBT Staff Network, I am inviting more LGBT staff at Brunel to join us in our work. At the moment, we meet once every term to discuss priorities and agree action points on issues such as LGBT History Month, Pride, and making Brunel a fairer place. We even get a free lunch. We are also planning social events.
We know that some people don’t feel safe to be open about their sexuality and/or gender identity at work. We understand why, and we are not in the business of outing people to others. Information about the network is communicated via a bcc email list that only the co-ordinator has access to. We don’t share anyone’s personal information or membership of the network with others.
IDAHOBIT is an opportunity for us all to reflect on progress and think about what still needs to be done. If you’re interested in making Brunel a better place to work and study, please join us and support our work.
For further information on Brune’s LGBT network, you can also follow us on Twitter at @LgbtBrunel
Reported by:
Press Office,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 266867
press-office@brunel.ac.uk