Written by members of the PULSE LGBT+ Staff Network
Trans Awareness Week, held every year from 13-19 November, is an internationally celebrated occasion held to inform the public about the lives of trans people, and draw attention to the issues that trans people face in our society. Trans Awareness Week precedes Trans Day of Remembrance on 20 November, during which we remember trans people lost to violence directed against the community.
Raising of the flag
To mark the event, the Pulse LGBT+ Staff Network will be holding a trans pride flag raising ceremony on Monday 15 November 2021at 11:00 with Mark Spearing, VP Research and Enterprise and UEB Champion for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, in attendance, including Student Union Representative and President and VP of the Student LGBTQ+ Society. The flag will continue to fly throughout Trans Awareness Week. We welcome all staff and students to attend.
Safe listening space
The Pulse LGBT+ Staff Network will also be hosting a safe listening space for trans staff and students on Thursday 18 November at 12:30. This event will be a great opportunity for your voice to be heard – themes will be fed back to the university as we continue the process of updating our policies for supporting trans staff and students. If you would like to attend, please book a ticket here.
Dr Imogen Gingell, Royal Society University Research Fellow and a committee member of our Pulse LGBT+ Staff Network comments: “Sadly, the trans community faces increasing prejudice and hate crime, all while navigating barriers to necessary health care and legal recognition. Trans Awareness Week is important to making sure that the issues facing the community are heard.”
A transgender person, or trans person, is someone whose gender is different to the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a woman who was assigned male at birth is a trans woman. Likewise, a man who was assigned female at birth is a trans man. Non-binary people do not identify strictly with being a man or woman. Their gender identity might be a mix of both or neither, it might exist on a spectrum, it might be fluid, or it might be best understood separately from a male-female binary. You may also hear the terms cisgender person, or cis person, which may be used to refer to someone whose gender aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Inclusive Recruitment
Pulse LGBT+ Staff Network are also involved in the Super Recruiter (Inclusive Recruitment) Project, which is a University wide initiative to promote, support and role model inclusive recruitment practice throughout the recruitment process, strengthening the opportunities to increase the diversity of the workforce and share good practice.
If you would like to find out more about this exciting project, or would like to volunteer as a Super Recruiter, please visit https://sotonac.sharepoint.com/teams/InclusiveRecruitment or contact Lindsey Onoufriou, Project Lead.
You can find out more about trans lives from organisation such as Stonewall and GLAAD, local organisations such as Chrysalis, and the university’s Pulse LGBT+ Staff Network.
