LGBTQ History Month draws to a close!

This week has been a very prominent one in the LGBTQsphere, so I feel the need to blog about the LGBTQ events recently, especially as we come to  a close of LGBTQ History month.

Don’t know if any UoL students have seen over the past few weeks, but we’ve had a stall at the entrance to the Square, every Monday. Educating the public on issues from LGBTQ activism to unsung heroes, LGBTQ in ancient history and so on. We have also had a couple of film screenings: Milk, and Stonewall Uprising: the latter documenting the Stonewall Riots, which mark the beginning of the modern LGBTQ  fight for equal rights. Milk documenting the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician appointed to the Senate! I would highly recommend any people interested in LGBTQ history to watch these films.

I dunno if I ever bragged about my new position as Welfare Officer for the LGBTQ Association (if I didn’t then I’m obviously just too humble for my own good), but I have also organised my own events for LGBTQ history month too! The Association visited the local LGBTQ centre in Leicester last Saturday, so that we could get to know other local LGBTQ groups in Leicester, and learn a little more about Leicester’s local history within LGBTQ liberation and support. For more information visit: http://www.leicesterlgbtcentre.org/

LGBTQ Centre Open Day.. many freebies… but plenty of education as well, naturally!

We also listened to guest speaker Peter Tatchell at the Centre. His speech on his work with LGBTQ liberation was very inspiring and left me with the message that Equality and Diversity needs to be brought into school education from a young age to face bigotry, and make these lessons examined so that future generations take discrimination seriously. What do you reckon? Is this justifiable? Even possible? any thoughts would be greatly welcomed 🙂

Today, the LGBTQ history month finished with a Trans* workshop I held with the society, to help educate the society about trans* issues, transphobia being even more prevalent and abhorrent within nowaday’s society. The workshop was enlightening for the members and for me personally. This preceded a lecture by LGBTQ activist, Colin Wilson, from Queers Against the Cuts (for more info: http://queersagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/ ) who talked to us about the history of LGBTQ liberation and where we need to go from here.

This month has been educational and enlightening even to me, as my knowledge of past events is very little. And considering the freedom I have now to be myself, I do have a lot to be thankful for. And while some of the LGBTQ community might be reaching near equals in rights, we have a lot of cultural and social issues to address. And education is the first step to gaining complete equality within society!

Sorry for the long rant, but my passion really shows for LGBTQ issues. No doubt, my flamboyant self will be more apparent in future blogs 😀