Introduction Dr Sophie Cook is a writer, speaker, actor, broadcaster, photographer and author, as well as being an LGBT+ and mental health campaigner. Sophie transitioned in 2015, and became the Premier League’s first transgender woman to work as a photographer for a football club (AFC Bournemouth). Since transitioning, Sophie has been working to educate people regarding LGBTQIA+ concerns, mental health and diversity, often delivering specialist talks on LGBTQ+ Awareness for Healthcare, Transgender Awareness Training, and Hate Crime Awareness Training. For this inspiring work and support for L ..read more

LGBTQIA+ History Month is an annual period marking LGBTQIA+ achievements, challenges, campaigns and rights, with reflections on past and continuing discrimination, ostracization and othering. Founded in 2004 by Schools OUT UK Co-Chairs, Paul Partick and Professor Emeritus Sue Sanders, LGBTQIA+ History Month is observed every February across the UK. Legal progress in the UK includes the legal decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Sexual Offences Act 1967, the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act (the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill) in 2003, the passing of the Gender Recognition Act in 200 ..read more

Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation and takes place on 1 February. We have conversations with our family, friends and colleagues on a daily basis, but how often do we really listen to what they are telling us? How often do we actually open up and talk about anything that is really important? Would you be able to recognise if someone was struggling with their mental health? A national survey in 2018 of over 2,000 people highlighted that asking “How are you?” just once often prompts nothing more than a meaningless exchange. A campaign encouraging people to Ask Twi ..read more

Primary Investigator Dr Frances Hamilton (Associate Professor, School of Law) and Research Assistant Tahlia-Rose Virdee (Postgraduate Researcher, School of Law) are proud to introduce the LGBTQ+ Travel tool. This interactive tool has been designed to assist both Higher Education Institutions and businesses in the development of policies and processes which are mindful of the concerns and experiences of LGBTQ+ colleagues (both students and staff), who are considering travelling internationally for the purposes of work or education. As an ally and advocate of LGBTQ+ communities, Dr Frances Hamil ..read more

Black History Month is officially underway and this year the national theme is ‘Saluting our Sisters’ to pay homage to black women who have had their contributions ignored or voices silenced. You can read more about the theme this year on the Black History Month website.   The University of Reading is hosting a number of events this year to honour Black History Month. The flagship event will be on the 19th October, In Conversation with Dr Deborah Husbands. Dr Husbands will be joining us from the University of Westminster to share her expert insights and lived experiences, the impac ..read more

When I started my role at the University of Reading, I made a choice: I asked to be known as ‘Immy’ by my colleagues. My full name is ‘Imogen’, but outside of work and school I have almost always been called Immy. Don’t get me wrong, I love my name and surname, as both have roots that speak to my Irish heritage. That said, I am aware that most people probably don’t expect a mixed race woman of English, Irish and Pakistani descent when they hear the name ‘Imogen Lawlor’. I’ve always considered ‘Imogen’ to be my ‘white’ and formal name, so when people only knew me as ‘Imogen’ it felt like I wasn ..read more

Back in May, I published a written piece about what childlesss not by choice (cnbc) means. The 11th – 17th September is World Childless Week and I wanted to write another profile on a related topic because it can be hard to know how to navigate issues of grief, infertility, and childlessness at work as the subjects can be very confronting.  The focus of this blog is looking at what support we can offer colleagues who have experienced pregnancy or baby loss, but before I get into the details it is important to remember that, as a colleague,   …your role is not to be a counsellor or e ..read more

The 11th – 17th September is World Childless Week, which aims to raise awareness of the childless not by choice (cnbc) community and enable every childless person to share their story with confidence (should they wish to).  Stephanie Joy Phillips is the founder of World Childless Week which offers support, resources, and hosts events that raise awareness of what it means to be childless not by choice, whether this is due to a medical condition or life circumstances.  There are an abundance of events happening this World Childless Week. One of the first events being hosted for World C ..read more

The University of Reading LGBT+ Staff Network has now been rebranded as the University of Reading LGBTQIA+ Staff Network! Pleased to meet you all! Over the summer, the LGBT+ Staff Network has been working on re-strategising our efforts to increase awareness of the Network, and to better reflect the diverse identities which we are keen to celebrate and support across campus and beyond. This has included the addition of some new objectives for the Network. These new objectives are: to increase membership of the Network, encourage allyship initiatives across campus, install a robust steering grou ..read more

June, being international LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, was a busy period for the LGBT+ Staff Network. The Network hosted a series of events, most notably the flagship Wolfenden Lecture which you can read about in this blog post here. Things were busy on the allyship front, too, with two introductory allyship training sessions being run by the authors of this blog post. The sessions – which the authors of this blog post ran on 21 and 30 June – saw some of the strongest attendance this training has seen, with 35 attendees across the two events.   A total of 11 schools and functions were repre ..read more