LGBTQ+ Speakers at DMU
Eva Echo – activist, public speaker and blogger with a focus on transgender rights, joined us for #DMUpride 2022. She uses her own experiences to shed light on what it is to be transgender and to challenge the obstacles that may be encountered by gender-diverse people within today’s society. Eva discussed her transgender experience and how we must use LGBTQ+ history to secure our future.
Eva Echo is an activist, a public speaker and writes her own blog ‘Square Peg, Round Hole’, and whose work has seen her nominated as a positive role model at the national diversity awards.
Charlie Martin is a British racing driver, and LGBTQ+ activist and joined us for a joint event between the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media, DMU Women and the LGBTQ+ and Allies Network for DMU Pride 2022. In 2020, Charlie made LGBTQ+ history as the first ever transgender driver to compete in the ADAC TOTAL 24hr Nürburgring-Rennen, where she finished 4th in class racing a BMW M240i. In 2021 she finished 3rd in the Praga class of the Britcar Endurance Championship.
In 2021 she raced a Praga R1 in the Britcar Endurance Championship, securing 4 podiums from 4 race weekends.
Charlie's ambition is to make LGBTQ+ history by competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. She has overcome huge adversity since transitioning mid way through her career, and works with leading LGBTQ+ charities Stonewall (Sports Champion), Mermaids (Patron) and Athlete Ally (ambassador) to improve visibility, acceptance and inclusion in motorsport.
She is a professional public speaker and works regularly with large organisations to help them improve their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Clients include Google, Adidas, O2, BMW and many others.
Charlie has featured in Vogue Magazine and was listed in the Vogue 25, a celebration of inspiring women shaping the World in 2021 and beyond.
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah joined us in 2021 for #DMUpride, for an insightful discussion into her life and work as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah is the nucleus of the award-winning celebration and protest that is UK Black Pride. Widely known as Lady Phyll - partly due to her decision to reject an MBE in the New Year's Honours' list to protest Britain's role in formulating anti-LGBTQ+ penal codes across its empire - she is also the executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust, an organisation working towards the liberation of LGBTQ+ people around the world; a community builder and organiser; an Albert Kennedy Trust patron, and a public speaker focusing on race, gender, sexuality and class. She's regularly called upon to advise nascent LGBTQ+ organisations around the world to help leaders create cogent organising strategies, establish robust partnership networks and work effectively in service of the LGBTQ+ community.
Patrick Ettenes joined us in 2021 for #DMUpride for 'We're isolated - but are we alone?' The session discussed the reality of bringing communities together and creating inclusivity in a new normal.
Patrick is living with HIV and early onset frontal lobe atrophy dementia and campaigns to raise understanding and awareness around these diseases. Covid-19 has not only posed additional health risks, but also limited interaction in communities that often rely on social support. Patrick's film 'Bring Dementia Out' highlights the isolation already faced by the LGBTQ+ community living with conditions like dementia and HIV.
Jamie Campbell joined us for our Cultural eXchanges festival in 2021.
In 2011 Jamie Campbell attended his end of school prom in drag and was subject to the BBC documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16. Several years later his story was turned into an award-winning musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie which plays at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. Along with the UK tour, the show has also gone international in South Korea and Australia (with more to be announced). The musical has also been made into a major motion picture which will be released worldwide by Disney later in 2021.
Danni Spooner joined us for our Cultural eXchanges festival in 2021.
Danni Spooner is a queer, neurodivergent, working class, non-binary artist. They trained as a contemporary dancer and now work as a dancer, performer, model, drag artist and poet.
Jamie Windhurst joined us for our Cultural eXchanges festival in 2021.
Jamie Windust is an author, contributing editor at Gay Times and model working in London. Their work focuses on looking at the creative industries, and analysing their inclusivity and accessibility for trans and gender non-conforming folks. They've worked with the likes of Gucci, ASOS, Zalando and Lazy Oaf throughout their career.
Their debut book 'In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life' was published in October 2020 with Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Jack Munroe joined us in 2020 for a talk for #DMUpride.
Jack Monroe is a campaigner on poverty issues, a journalist and a food writer focusing on austerity recipes and meals that can be made on a tight budget. Jack's most recent book 'Veganish' was published at the end of 2019 and Jack is a firm believer that 'if all of us adopted a few more plant-based meals into our diets on a weekly basis, not only would our food bills go down, but so would our environmental impact.'
In 2013 Jack was ranked number 19 in the Independent's Rainbow list of influential LGBT people in the UK.
Travis Alabanza joined us for our Cultural eXchanges festival in 2021.
Travis Alabanza is an award-winnning writer, theatre maker and performer based in London. In the last five years they have been noted by numerous publications and figures as one of the most prominent emerging figures in trans art and public thought. Their work has appeared in The Guardian, BBC, Dazed, ID, Vice as well as performing and speaking in venues across countries such as The Tate, ICA, V&A, Harvard University, Oxford and more. Their show Burgerz toured across the UK and Europe in 2019, winning the Total Theatre Edinburgh Fringe Award, voted Guardian Readers Favourite show, and acclaimed success after a sold out run at Southbank Centre. Travis Alabanza works to archive and discuss the issues facing gender non-conforming and trans people, at the intersections of class and sexuality.
Noted for their distinct voice, in 2019 the Evening Standard listed them as one of the 25 most influential under 25-year olds, as well as being listed in the Dazed100, guardian asking if 'they are the future of theatre' and recently being listed on the Forbes30Under30List.
Simon joined us for our 2018 equality, diversity and inclusion DMUfreedom conference in March 2018 'How do we Capitalise on Cultural Diversity'
Simon was a co-founder of one of the most successful lobby and campaign groups in recent times, the LGBT charity Stonewall. He is now a co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Trust, supporting LGBTI activists abroad. He is a broadcaster, writer and pundit. He was awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours List 2013 for services to Higher Education. Further, he was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Sussex for services to diversity and human rights in 2013.
Simon talked about the importance of intersectionality and breaking down the 'silos' of diversity. He spoke about his life as a gay man, and his and his own partners' experiences, as intersectional gay men.
Simon also produced a documentary 'The Trouble With Gay Men'.
Roly, a non-binary Youtuber, joined us for a conversation during Cultural Exchanges 2018.
Transgender rights activist Paris Lees inspired a large audience at DMU Cultural Exchanges Festival 2016 with her stories about fighting prejudice at every turn in order to become a vital voice in the media for the trans community.
Her warts and all talk covered her time as a working class kid from the former mining community of Hucknall, Notts, how she dealt, like many trans people still do, with family rejection, public harassment, violent attacks and mental health issues and her fight to become a respected journalist and campaigning voice for transgender rights.
When asked by one audience member to give a message to young transgender people Paris added: “You are fine as you are. Yes you need support and access to medical care and better media representation. Just do not go down that route of internalising the problems people have with you. They are the problem, not you.
“Do not waste your time getting upset by other people’s prejudices. It is toxic. Enjoy life and do not let people push you down. You are beautiful and have every chance of leading a full, loving life, as anyone else has.”
See the full report of Paris' visit.
David joined us in October 2017, discussing sexuality and the church at our "Realising Freedom at DMU" event. Dean David Monteith moved to Leicester Cathedral in 2009, and between 2009 and 2013, served as Canon Chancellor. In 2013, he was installed as Dean of Leicester Cathedral, and is the most senior priest in the Diocese of Leicester.
David Monteith is openly gay, having been with his partner for over 25 years, and in a civil partnership for the last 10. He has discussed the intricacies of being LGBT and marriage at length (see Leicester Cathedral post). He is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and ensuring LGBT voices are heard and valued.
The transgender icon, who boasts a loyal social media following of tens of thousands, visited campus as part of the Cultural Exchanges festival organised by Arts and Festivals Management students.
She told a packed room about the significant turning point she faced in 2017, after being dropped from a national beauty campaign to promote diversity when her views on systemic racism were sold to the press.
“It forced me into fight or flight mode. I thought my career was over, but I had nothing to lose so I continued to speak up about the things that matter,” she said.
The lack of representation in the fashion and beauty industries is also something that Munroe is striving to improve, saying: “We need to make sure it's accurate and not just seen as a trend or something brands have to do.
"The fact that we have to explain this to brands means they're not diverse themselves, especially at the top where decisions are made. I want to get people excited about diversity and to realise what a positive thing it is."
Munroe spoke about the hardships of growing up without role models and the 'shocking validity schools give to privilege', overlooking the contributions black people make.
"Having role models is so important, without them things can seem 10 times harder and lonelier," she said.
"It makes me feel proud and accomplished that young people look up to me. It means they uphold the same values as me, which gives me hope for the future."
See the full report of Monroe's visit.