Staff Pride Network Newsletter – Feb 2021

Welcome to the Feb 2021 edition of the
Staff Pride Network newsletter

Dear Members,

Welcome to our 10th newsletter and as LGBT+ History Month is upon us the Staff Pride Network team have put together another series of fascinating events on a range of topics, further details available on our EventBrite as well as listed below.

In other news, we have created a Deputy Co-Chair role to aid future transitions and provide learning opportunities. We are grateful to Ally Rep Danielle Marlow for taking on that challenge! You may have noticed the Philadelphia flag version of our logo above – February is Black History Month in the US. Also, we are still looking for volunteers for the Disability Rep and BAME Rep positions so if you might be interested, do get in touch.

1st Feb: ‘Legal for 40 Years: A snapshot from someone who was there’
- Interview with lawyer Terry Munyard focused on his involvement on legalising homosexuality in Scotland (1st Feb 1981).
10th Feb: ‘Transgressions’
- An evening to share stories of what has happened when we are seen to cross a line or boundary, how this is seen as a transgression, what are the repercussions and how we have coped, complied, resisted or challenged.
- Collaboration with OurStory Scotland.
17th Feb: The Role of Legal Activism in the Advancement of Trans Rights
- The role of legal activism in the advancement of trans rights & current challenges in the wake of the Keira Bell High Court judgment.
- Collaboration with GLASS network.
24th Feb: LGBTQ+ Trivia Night
- Collaboration with The STEM Village.
25th Feb: Activism and the Future of HIV in Scotland

We are delighted that schools and departments throughout the University have chosen to organise more events and have liaised with us to ensure communications are appropriate. Watch out for social media from UoE Sport & Exercise and an HCA event on 9th Feb https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lgbt-history-month-dr-molly-merryman-queer-voices-from-the-pandemic-tickets-133064687061 .

We’ll share more events from fellow HE networks on our social media so if you’re not already following us, we’re @uoestaffpride on Twitter, Facebook and Insta.

The rest of the newsletter will highlight some of the fabulous virtual events we have been running with the opportunity to catch any you missed on our YouTube channel.

Happy LGBT+ History Month! We hope you can join us for one of our events.

Best wishes,

Jonathan (he/him) & Katie (she/her)
Co-Chairs, Staff Pride Network for LGBT+ colleagues & allies

Rainbow Background Images

We are delighted to present new backgrounds for video conferencing or slides which are available on the University website. Thanks to Mark Pace we also have a few PowerPoint master themes available for download using these. Click Here for Full Details and Downloads

Virtual Socials

We are continuing our weekly Wednesday lunchtime coffee meetup 1-2 pm as well as, on the first Friday of each month, our evening social event (BYOB) 6:30 pm – late. Find out more…

SPN launched its Research Seminar Series

Heavier than Air

Premiere and discussion

Heavier than Air helps to educate non-LGBTQIA+ audiences, along with education administrators, students, and staff about the experiences of social inclusion and mental health needs of LGBTQIA+ people, providing LGBTQIA+ teachers with an opportunity to see their sometimes welcoming, sometimes violently exclusionary experiences at their workplace depicted on film. The film was followed by a discussion on how qualitative research and performing arts converge to rethink research methodologies and research communication in humanities and social sciences. More Details… (+video)

Imagined Futures of Older Same Sex Couples in Scotland

The research looked at how people talk about their past and present, and how their experiences were reflected in the imagination of their future. Based on interviews with 7 older same-sex couples living in Scotland, the talk presented some of the key results, which show that the couples who participated in this research imagine their future in a very similar and specific way. The talk also explored two ways of imagining the future, the short- and long-term one, and how these differ in terms of the concerns and hopes reflected in each. Through the stories presented in this talk and in Dr Jandrić’s doctoral research, she hopes to raise awareness of the experiences these couples went through and what these experiences mean for their present and future lives.
More Details… (+video)

University Buildings Illuminated Red for WAD2020

World AIDS Day 2020

In recognition of World Aid’s Day 2020 and this year’s theme of “Resilience”, the University of Edinburgh Staff Pride Network hosted a panel event to address the question: How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Scotland and around the world? and share insights as to how communities and health systems have demonstrated resilience and sought to strengthen HIV prevention services in the context of a global pandemic.

Our Panel members were:

Robert Pollock from Waverley Care
Socorro García – Casa de la Sal (Mexico)
Germán Martínez Blanco – AHF Mexico
Rocío Sánchez Granillo – preVIHene (Mexico)
Fraser Serle – HIV Scotland volunteer

More Details… (+video)

Transgender Gaze, Neoliberal Haze

Representations of trans women in the Americas through the prism of neoliberal society

a seminar with Gina Gwenffrewi

My PhD thesis deals with the impact of the Americas on our conception in Scotland and the UK regarding trans identity, specifically trans female identity. This is partly the intellectual and activist legacies from mainly North America since the 1990s, but also the terrible rate of violence suffered by trans women in Latin America and African American communities in the North. I’m interested in the narratives that we encounter in the arts and the media, including which narratives get seen by us, and which do not. My work deals with the power structures that decide, within our current neoliberal culture, what is the right kind of trans narrative and which is not. More Details… (+video)

Now, more than ever, we need to talk. So the Staff pride Network has set up Rainbow Office Hours. A chance to make a connection with another LGBTQ+ staff member, or PG student, at the University. Each month*, the last Friday of the month at 12-1pm, a few of our members will be standing by – check our website for details of who is available. Pick out someone you’d like to talk to, and drop them a line in Teams

For More Details…

Bi Visibility Day 2020: Solidarity Across The Distance

Co-hosted by the University of Edinburgh Staff Pride Network and OurStory Scotland.

We marked Bi Visibility Day on Wednesday 23 September 2020 with an online event where members of the Staff Pride Network and the Pridesoc student network, as well as LGBT+ community members and allies, learned more about the Bi+ experience through shared stories. More Details… (+video)

On Trans Day of Remembrance, we again joined with the students and the EUSA Liberation Trans and Non-Binary Campaign to remember the lives lost to transphobia this year, and to celebrate our community. There was a selection of short speeches & readings, plus some information for allies on how you can show solidarity with our trans siblings. Afterwards, we joined the national event where the Glasgow Mission, Order of Perpetual Indulgence created a safe space of remembrance and celebration of the lives lived as well as lost. They honoured those past in spoken word, poems and music. Read More…

LGBT Magazine Archive

The Library now has access to the LGBT Magazine Archive from ProQuest until 31st December 2021. This primary source database is a searchable archive of major periodicals devoted to LGBT+ interests, dating from the 1950s through to recent years.

For Full Details…