Celebrating 25 years of pride and protest at Birmingham Pride

‘Be proud of who you are’ read one of our many colourful signs and flags at this year’s Birmingham Pride Parade.

On Saturday 24 September, around 500 UoB students, staff and alumni marched alongside colleagues and friends from Aston University, Birmingham City University, University College Birmingham, Newman University and University of Wolverhampton as part of the ‘UNIfied at Pride’ team.

It was a sea of rainbows as friends and allies joined together to celebrate 25 years of pride and protest, cheered on by thousands of people (and a few dogs!) as the parade made its way from outside The Exchange (Centenary Square) through the city centre from midday.

As well as being a protest for LGBTQ+ recognition and equality, pride is a party - it's fun; full of colour, music, and dancing. It was certainly a party atmosphere during the parade with rainbow flags and spirits flying high – check out our video for the highlights or the @UniBirmingham and @diversity_uob Instagram channels.

The University of Birmingham has been marching the annual pride parade through the streets of Birmingham since 2017, and we look forward to continuing to come together to celebrate LGBTQ+ equality with you all next year too – on Saturday 27 May 2023 (this year’s Pride was scheduled in September due to the May Bank Holiday having moved to June for the Platinum Jubilee).

So save the date and keep an eye on your emails or our ED&I events programme!

Networks and Societies for LGBTQ+ students

At UoB we have a number of welcoming and safe spaces for all LGBTQ+ students:

• Guild of Students' LGBTQ Association aims to represent those who consider themselves to have a minority sexual/romantic orientation and/or gender identity.
• oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a society dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ students studying, or with an interest in, STEM subjects.
• Birmingham Medsoc LGBTQ  is a social group, where members can get to know LGBT students in other years.
• Rainbow Network exists to provide support for LGBTQ staff and PhD students, and ensure that their views and needs are recognised by the University.
• The Careers Network's LGBT mentoring scheme supports students to gain advice on how to be happy and fulfilled as an out lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer employee.