Wednesday 17-05-2017 - 13:24

Wednesday 17 May is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (also known as IDAHoBiT). 

The University is marking the day with the Equality and Diversity team launching #PostYourSupport — an interactive campaign that allows you to show your support.

The team are encouraging you to fill in the rainbow postcard saying why you support LGBT+ equality. You can get involved and pick up your postcard from The Union’s Reception and take a picture to share on Twitter or Facebook tagging MMU Equality (@MMUEqualities) and using #PostYourSupport.

You can always pop it up on our positivity wall by Reception, where The Union has already popped theirs up, and some of the team has been writing their own too! You can send your postcard back to the team, a friend, family member or fellow student to show your support, or just pop it on your desk or in your window.  

Manchester Community Central have organised an event in Sackville Gardens this evening to mark the day from 17:45 until 19:00.  According to their website:

“This is an opportunity for the people across the city region to come together to support the LGBT community and to remember those who have been the victims of hate crime. This year’s theme is family and a variety of speakers will be sharing their experiences.”

To find out more about the event or to get involved, check out their website or their Facebook page.

Students have been hard at work this year to promote equality and ensure the University experience is a safe and enjoyable one for all.

Student campaigners have successfully lobby for a 6-month pilot programme of Gender Neutral Toilets on campus, setting the wheels in motion for a more accessible Manchester Met – look out for more information on this coming soon.

Criminology students helped to promote The Union as a third party hate crime-reporting centre, with a particular focus on the experiences of LGBT+ students.

Recently, liberation groups and societies were consulted and asked to share their views through in-person discussions and an online survey. If you want to check this out, the survey is open until 7 June.

The LGBT+ Society have recently developed a campaign called ‘Out in Education’ and will soon be promoting a survey about students’ experiences of homophobia and transphobia which will feed into this campaign, so keep an eye out for this in the coming weeks.

In February, students and staff from The Union celebrated LGBT+ History Month with a trip to the People’s History Museum exhibition ‘Never Going Underground: The Fight for LGBT+ Rights’. Your Student Officers also ran the Tied Together campaign — sports clubs wore rainbow laces to games and signed a pledge to eliminate homophobia in sport, working in partnership with the Government to unite behind this cause.

To find out what other campaigns have been running this year, or to suggest one, check out the campaigns page.