Sharing pronouns is a small but powerful gesture that can greatly impact how we communicate with and support our colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. Recently, Microsoft Teams introduced a new option for adding pronouns, reflecting the growing awareness of the importance of this practice. Additionally, individuals now incorporate pronouns into their UCL email signatures and social media profiles.

What Does it Mean to Share Your Pronouns?

Sharing pronouns means openly communicating how you would like to be addressed and referred to regarding gender. It’s a simple way to let others know how you identify and how you wish to be recognised. Whether you identify as transgender, non-binary, or cisgender, sharing pronouns is an act of respect and acknowledging the diversity of gender identities.

Why Might Someone Choose to Share Pronouns?

Putting pronouns on our email signatures and social media accounts can have a number of benefits:

1. Expressing Identity: Trans and non-binary individuals can use shared pronouns to express how they would like to be addressed, ensuring that their gender identity is respected.
2. Support and Solidarity: People who feel that their gender identity is already clear to others can use pronouns to show support for trans and non-binary colleagues, promoting an inclusive and affirming environment.
3. Clarification: For those whose names do not immediately indicate their gender identity, adding pronouns can help colleagues address them appropriately, reducing potential confusion.

How Should I Use Information About Other People’s Pronouns?

Respecting and using someone’s preferred pronouns is essential. It shows that you acknowledge and validate their identity. However, mistakes can happen, and that’s okay. Correcting these mistakes should be done respectfully. If you make a mistake, apologise briefly and correct yourself without making it a big deal. For example, if someone prefers “they/them” pronouns and you accidentally use “he,” simply say, “I’m sorry, they.”

Do I Have to Add My Own Pronouns?

No. There are also reasons why adding pronouns to our communications might not be appropriate for some colleagues – now or ever.

1. Not Ready to Share: Some people might not be ready to disclose their true gender identity to colleagues, and that’s perfectly okay. Respecting their privacy is paramount.
2. Undecided Preferences: Others may still be exploring their gender identity or may not have strong preferences. Forcing them to declare pronouns can be stressful and counterproductive.

To sum up, sharing pronouns is a simple yet impactful way to promote inclusivity and respect in our interactions. It allows individuals to express their gender identity, supports their trans and non-binary colleagues, and helps clarify ambiguous situations. Respect and understanding are at the core of this practice, and it’s perfectly acceptable if someone chooses not to share their pronouns for personal reasons. The key is to create an environment where everyone’s gender identity is acknowledged and respected.

Written by Prof Carolyn McGettigan, LGBTQ+ Equity Lead.

The Faculty of Brain Sciences Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee are running a series of one-to-one interviews to collect data on the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff. The interview will take place with a researcher online using MS Teams and will last around 60 minutes. 

The Project Team are Prof Carolyn McGettigan (Principal Investigator) and Dr Nick Anim (Senior Research Fellow). 

Data collected will inform FBS’ EDI action planning and will allow us to improve our understanding of the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff and students, so we can address inequities and create a more inclusive culture.  

Specifically, the project aims to explore:  

1. Positive and negative experiences for LGBTQ+ staff and students.  
2. Perceptions and motivations of success, as well as any barriers in achieving them.  
3. Perceptions of belonging and the degree to which this is felt within departments, as well as the wider Faculty and Students’ Union UCL.  
4. Whether there have been experiences of discrimination on campus, and if so, how these have been addressed.  
5. Put forward recommendations/suggestions to improve the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff and students in FBS.  

To participate in an interview, you must be:  

• any member of staff in FBS (professional services / academic / research/teaching): if you’re unsure, see the list of eligible divisions and institutes below 
• self-identify as LGBTQ+. Note: You do not need to provide any details of your specific LGBTQ+ identity OR have formally shared information about this with anyone at UCL.  

If you would like to find out more, require information in alternative formats, and/or participate in an interview, email Nick Anim (nick.anim.12@alumni.ucl.ac.uk) by Friday 12^th May. 

Watch this short video from Carolyn with a few words about the motivation for the study.

This study has UCL Research Ethics Committee approval (Ethics ID Number: 22961/001)

Eligible Institutes and Divisions in the Faculty of Brain Sciences 

• Division of Psychiatry 
• Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
• Ear Institute
• Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
• Queen Square Institute of Neurology
• Institute of Ophthalmology
• Institute of Prion Diseases (MRC Prion Unit at UCL)
• UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL
• UCL Institute of Mental Health

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.

To mark LGBT+ History Month, we spoke to Carolyn McGettigan who has recently taken on the role of LGBTQ+ Faculty lead within Brain Sciences.

Photo of Professor Carolyn McGettigan, Faculty LGBT+ Equity Lead

What is the importance of LGBT+ History Month and what does LGBT+ History Month mean to you?

In the UK, LGBT+ History Month was initiated in 2005, following the 2003 abolition of Section 28. Section 28 was a clause of the Local Government Act 1988 that banned the “promotion” of homosexuality and its acceptability by UK local authorities, meaning schools were effectively prevented from discussing any kinds of non-heterosexual relationships or family structures with their students.

Most of my schooling was spent under Section 28, and thinking about that is a stark reminder that many of the rights we have as a community today have not been ours for very long at all. So, I see LGBT+ History Month as an opportunity to reflect on the community’s fight for recognition and rights, and to think about where and how progress still needs to be made.

What motivated you to become Faculty lead for LGBTQ+?

I joined UCL PALS in 2018, as a Professor in Speech and Hearing Sciences. Having been involved in the LGBT staff network at my previous institution, I was keen to take on a related role in my new post. I’m excited that this is a brand new role within the Faculty, and I’m looking forward to working alongside the Vice Dean and other members of the EDI committee. I hope that together, our work will improve everyone’s experience of working and studying at the Faculty of Brain Sciences.

What can we do as a Faculty to support LGBTQ+ equity at UCL?

I think we can each ask ourselves about how the way we do our work can better support inclusivity of all our colleagues and students. That might be thinking about how to include a topic relevant to LGBT+ issues in a lecture, organising a departmental event for Black History Month, or making sure to have equal representation of men and women in a seminar series.

Cumulatively, these individual and local actions can enhance everyone’s experience. In my old job, my colleagues used to cover our department building in rainbow flags for Pride – it was a simple thing, but I felt renewed warmth for my place of work when I saw the decorations go up each year.

What are your aims in this role for the next year?

The first thing I want to do is listen in to the needs of our colleagues and students within the Faculty. Please look out for invitations to contribute your thoughts!

Links

• Professor Carolyn McGettigan
• LGBTQ+ Equality at UCL

Newly appointed Equity Leads: Carolyn McGettigan, LGBT+ Equity (left) and Anouchka Sterling, Religion and Belief Equity (right)

The new appointments include Anouchka Sterling (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) as Religion and Belief Equity Lead and Carolyn McGettigan (Division of Psychology and Language Sciences) as LGBT+ Equity Lead.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to the ethos of UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences. Our aim is to foster a positive cultural climate where all staff and students can flourish and be their authentic selves.

Anna Cox, Vice Dean of EDI for the Faculty said: “These latest appointments ensure our commitment to LGBT+ and Religion and Belief equity, and help us progress our vision of the Faculty as a place in which all members of our community feel that they belong and can achieve their potential.” 

Anouchka Sterling, Religion and Belief Equity Lead said: “EDI issues are of growing importance across the HE sector as pressures are felt from within and without that demand attention and more importantly, action. At UCL, as elsewhere in the UK HEIs, there are a growing number of staff and students from diverse faiths and belief backgrounds. Whilst UCL was founded as a secular institution, it must be noted that a large proportion of its staff and students are people of religious faith or non-religious belief, and it is important that this is recognised in the way the college is governed, the manner in which it functions and in the shape of its success.

“I look forward to collaborating with colleagues to serve UCL in this role and to shaping an inclusive environment that can contribute to the recruitment, wellbeing and progression of a diverse body of staff and students. It is my opinion that religion and belief, even if there is a lack of one, underpins the very structure of the society we live in and the world we depend on. At a time when so much in the world around us is in flux, it would seem to me to be essential that we strive, as a community, to do what we can to ensure that this protected characteristic is indeed protected.”

Carolyn McGettigan, LGBT+ Equity Lead said: “I’m delighted to take up this role. As a member of the LGBT+ community, I know the value of being seen and welcomed at work for who I am. I look forward to working with the Vice Dean and other members of the EDI Committee to ensure that all of our staff and students experience UCL’s Faculty of Brain Science as a welcoming, safe, and happy place to study and work.”