A month-long festival celebrating LGBTQ culture at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) launches next week.
A look back to last year's #DMUpride launch
#DMUpride will involve a series of events open to students, staff and the wider community throughout February which includes raising awareness of LGBTQ issues in sport, a talk by prominent religious figures on faith and sexuality, a production at Curve based on the life of Leicester playwright and author, Joe Orton, the latest research on mental health in LGBTQ communities and screenings of powerful feature films and true-life stories.
The annual event comes as DMU is celebrating climbing further up the annual Stonewall Top 100 workplace equality index to 39th position, up 19 places compared to last year, making us the highest-placed English university and confirming the university’s commitment to ensure everyone on campus has the freedom to be who they want to be.
DMU is also home to a dedicated Centre for LGBTQ Research, led by Professor Julie Fish, Professor in Social Work and Health Inequalities.
Professor Fish, who has led the organising team for this year’s #DMUpride said: “DMU is passionate about people being free to be who they want to be and this is perfectly illustrated by the wide range of events organised for this month long celebration of LGBTQ culture.
“I would urge all of our students, staff and the wider community to get involved and see why DMU is among the top 10 per cent of workplaces in the UK that understands how vital it is to celebrate and address issues of equality and diversity.”
#DMUpride will be officially launched on Monday 6 February, from midday, when students can pick up their free #DMUpride t-shirts at their newly refurbished campus centre. There will be a tie dye station for students to customise their shirts, as well as stalls run by various groups including the De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU) LGBT Society and United Against Violence and Abuse (UAVA).
On Wednesday 10 February teams are invited to join in the #DMUpride sports day at The Watershed, in Upperton Road, when they can take part in traditional sports day events and pick up their rainbow laces to raise awareness about, and focus on, beating homophobia in sport.
The rainbow laces and the #DMUpride shirts will be worn by all sports teams when they take on rival universities on Wednesday, 15 February, and Wednesday 22 February, to make a stand against homophobia.
There will be film screenings with Chemsex showing at DMU on Monday 20 February and the Oscar-nominated Moonlight showing at The Phoenix on Friday 24 February. and on Monday 27Feb, Dr Matt Jones will lead a discussion about the film from 7.30pm.
Finally there are two important conferences happening on campus. Leicester LGBT Centre will host Celebrating 40 years of Achievements and Challenges for the LGBT+ Communities at The Venue@DMU on Friday 17 February while on Tuesday 28 February in Trinity Chapel, DMU, there will be a groundbreaking conference, introduced by Baroness Liz Barker, the spokesperson for LGBT rights in the House of Lords. The keynote speaker is Dr Ruth McNair from the University of Melbourne who specialises in LGBT health issues. The conference will explore themes related to Mental Health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Communities: Building Resilience.
Click here for all the details about #DMUpride 2017
Posted on Wednesday 1 February 2017