On Thursday 5th July we celebrated LGBTSTEM day, the first International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
The campaign is organised by four groups: Pride in STEM, House of STEM, InterEngineering, and Out in STEM; and is supported by over 40 organisations including CERN, the European Space Agency, and Wellcome. A day of recognition honours the memory of LGBTQ+ scientists who came before us and supports those who are currently in STEM. We believe it should be possible to follow your passion whilst being yourself.
We celebrated LGBTSTEM Day in Biochemistry with a rainbow themed coffee and cake morning, and also collected donations for a local charity which works with LGBTQ+ young people called Off The Record. Off The Record is a mental health charity working across Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Off The Record run a number of LGBTQ+ youth groups and offer one-to-one counselling with LGBTQ+ young people – all of their services are free of charge.
The official hashtag for LGBTSTEM day is #LGBTSTEMDay.