SCG Pride 22 logo

At SCG, Pride Month represents an opportunity for us all to reflect on who we are as a diverse college community and to support LGBTQIA+ colleagues and students, enhancing their voice and understanding the difficulties they face, while celebrating the valuable contributions they make to life at the college.

Throughout the month of June, we will be having a range of activities including guest speakers sharing the great things they do for the LGBTQIA+ community. 

Shropshire Lesbian Gay SwitchboardShropshire Lesbian & Gay Switchboard, 1977-2002

Thursday 9 June, 10.30-12 noon at Priory Hall, Welsh Bridge Campus

Peter and Daisy will be taking us back to 1977, when a group of volunteers set up a Shropshire switchboard, to provide a vital lifeline for local isolated rural LGBT communities. 

The presentation will enable a discussion about what life was like as a gay man or woman on the front-line of Shropshire’s LGBT community during the 1970s, 80s and 90s and how Switchboard's volunteers played their part in supporting LGBT+ people and the need for change. 

BOOK A PLACE

hating peter tatchel“Hating Peter Tatchell” Documentary Screening

Thursday 9 June, 1.30-3.00pm at Priory Hall, Welsh Bridge Campus

A documentary on the life of Peter Tatchell, the controversial human rights campaigner whose provocative acts of civil disobedience rocked the establishment, revolutionised attitudes to homosexuality and exposed tyrants in the fight for equality.

His achievements include staging the first gay rights protest in a communist country, co-founding the gay pressure group OutRage!, and attempting a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe.

BOOK A PLACE

peter tatchel portraitPeter Tatchell Guest Speaker Q&A

Thursday 9 June, 3.00-4.10pm at Priory Hall, Welsh Bridge Campus

An opportunity for students and staff to get together following the “Hating Peter Tatchell” documentary and meet the man himself for a live Q&A session.

Start thinking about what you’d like to ask Peter, such as how his campaigning has changed since he started in the ’60s compared to now.

BOOK A PLACE

Yasmin BenoitYasmin Benoit Guest Speaker

Tuesday 21 June, 1.30-2.30pm at Priory Hall, Welsh Bridge Campus

Yasmin Benoit is a British model, award-winning asexual activist, writer and speaker. At 18, she began modelling with the goal of diversifying the fashion industry and became one of the UK's most prominent black alternative models.

In 2017, she came out as an aromantic-asexual to become the face and voice for those communities. Her goal is to empower aromantic and asexual people, bring those identities into the mainstream, fight for their social and legal inclusion, and dispel misconceptions about them.

BOOK A PLACE 

Personalised messages from LGBTQ+ advocates

Personal message from Yasmin Benoit Guest Speaker for Pride Month
Personal message from LGBTQ+ advocate Desmond Napoles
Personal message from Sunday Times bestselling author and campaigner Shon Faye

Oscar Wilde‘Querying Queering’ A 21st Century Re-education

Friday 24 June 1-2pm: Room W102, English Bridge Campus

So, what about a Lavender Marriage? For the unversed, lavender marriage is a term coined to describe a marriage between a man and a woman in which one, or both, parties are homosexual. Usually, but not always, both parties are assumed to be complicit in a public deception to hide their homosexuality; sadly seen as necessary codifying in nineteenth-century society.

The Literacy Society brings to you readings and discussion regarding the marriage of convenience between Oscar Wilde, and his wife Constance Lloyd. We’ll also be discussing the Marquis of Queensbury’s Bosie, dress reform and everything in between. For further details email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Joe OrtonWhat the Butler Saw…

Friday 24 June 2-3pm: Room W102, English Bridge Campus

Readings and discussions on the diaries and plays by Joe Orton, an English playwright noted for his black comedies, which combine genteel dialogue with violent and shocking action.

Orton was a flamboyant homosexual in a period before the liberalization of British law.

For further details email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

What Pride Month means to our students and staff

  • Megan (she)

    Megan (she) Vocational Courses Student President

    To me, pride month is more than celebrating the anniversary of the Stonewall riots. To me, it means celebrating everybody and how far things have come for the LGBTQ+ community. It is a time that we can remember and celebrate the hard work of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies in the world and the wonderful things that have been accomplished.

    I am also proud of the recognition that Shrewsbury Colleges Group gives to any LGBTQ+ awareness/pride days and weeks. Throughout the time that I have attended college, the Pride group and the amazing staff that help to achieve the aims of the group, have been able to come together to arrange activities for students throughout Pride Month and to raise money for Stonewall. We made displays at each campus about what being an ally means, had fun and engaging pride group meetings where students can meet up and talk about anything they would like and spoke to staff at college about how we feel the Pride group could be promoted to incoming students on the college website (and clubs in general).

    I believe that these things have helped to create an inclusive environment for students where they can feel included and supported during their time in college. I have become more confident in myself in my time at college and part of that I feel is due to the acceptance I feel here.

  • Skye (she/they)

    Skye (she/they) Student LGBTQ+ Officer

    Pride Month started at the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 1970. It began with a fight for the rights of our community, and while our identities may now be legal we still are fighting for equality. This month to me is about more than just celebrating the wonderful people in the LGBTQ+ community, it's about being seen. It is about 30 days where the focus is on us, and our voices can be heard, and we can fight the same fight we have been fighting for decades in the hopes of one day finally winning it.

    To celebrate is advised; be proud of each and every fibre of yourself and our community. To keep demanding equality, representation, fairness and respect is obligatory, as this month means more than our flags, it is about our lives as human beings. This year will be my first Pride Month as a proud Transgender Woman, after years of celebrating as a queer person, and I will spend it advocating & raising awareness for the Trans lives at stake in the world.

  • Blue (she/they)

    Blue (she/they)

    To me, Pride Month is about celebrating the efforts taken for equality and justice, as well as facing discrimination against sexuality or gender in schools which is too normalised in the UK.

    Being queer is about being shameless in a society that demands shame of us and that can make things harder for LGBT+ youth who grow up in potentially unsafe environments.

    Pride Month is for celebration in spite of challenges and to give hope and encouragement to others.

    I grew up in a high school that demanded I stay closeted or accept abuse for the comfort, amusement and ease of others. That made Pride Month all the more important to me and encouraged me to want to be in a position where I can tackle discrimination against the LGBT+ community wherever possible.

  • Mystaya (they/them)

    Mystaya (they/them) Environmental Officer for Welsh Bridge

    Pride is to me about strength. The strength of individuals and our community to be true to ourselves, regardless of what our society says we should be. Personally, I have had a long struggle to accept my Queerness; so Pride for me is about finally saying I love myself for who I am and the way I love.

    I have been told that being Queer will make me less happy and that I should stay quiet about my identity, but Pride reminds me to be proud of who I am and how I will experience life. Queer people are often forced to stay in the shadows where our voices can be dulled down, but Pride shows we will always find a way for our beautiful rainbow of voices to be heard.

    Pride to me is also about unity and celebrating the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community. It is easy to remember what divides us, but Pride serves as a reminder of how we are alike. We are all different, and stronger as consequence.

  • Lorraine (she/her)

    Lorraine (she/her) Agency Project Co-ordinator

    To me, Pride month is about celebrating everything LBGTQ+, by raising awareness and breaking down stigmas. During my time helping to facilitate the PRIDE group at college, I have met some amazing students.

    Some students, often tell the same story, of their struggle to feel accepted in their communities, having little confidence in sharing their sexuality and sometimes finding it difficult to meet new people. Being an ally and taking part in the group can make a positive difference.

    The group is welcoming and helps others to meet new people in a safe, caring environment. Most members have faced the same struggles and our aim is to help others, to support and understand, that no one should feel ashamed to say who they really are.