Increasing LGBTQ+ visibility in the Faculty of Brain Sciences

Written by Carolyn McGettigan, Faculty LGBT+ Equity Lead

This past June (internationally recognised as Pride Month) has been an opportunity to celebrate LGBTQ+ identity in all its forms, while also recognising that the fight for equal rights is still far from over for many LGBTQ+ people across the globe.

Over the month we launched two new LGBTQ+ networks at the Faculty of Brain Sciences – one as a source of news and updates for the whole Faculty community, and a second (“Out@BrainSciences”) specifically for our LGBTQ+ staff and research students to connect. Our first virtual hangout at the end of the month gave us a real opportunity to get the conversation started.

One of my main aims as LGBTQ+ lead on the Faculty’s EDI committee is to raise visibility and celebrate the diversity of identities in Brain Sciences. During the entirety of my studies at Cambridge and UCL during the 2000s, there wasn’t a single lecturer or tutor in my field who I knew to be openly LGBTQ+. Not one. It would be tempting to think that “things were different back then” – after all, Y2K was a lifetime ago, right? But when talking to colleagues about setting up our LGBTQ+ networks in Brain Sciences, I realised that for today’s students the experience hasn’t really changed. There are plenty of great LGTBQ+ role models at UCL, but to many students they are invisible.

My hope is that we can support the whole LGBTQ+ community in Brain Sciences to feel welcomed and valued at UCL. So, if you feel like you can, I’d invite you to take a step to raise visibility. It can be a small step – for example, putting an “Out@UCL” sticker on your office door, adding a banner to your email signature, or wearing a rainbow lanyard to celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Our allies can help too, by becoming a Friend of Out@UCL. One sticker in a lecturer’s office can identify a role model for an LGBTQ+ student, or signal support to a colleague still working out their LGBTQ+ identity. As a student, these little gestures would have made a world of difference to me. They still can.