On Friday 5 July, the Department joined forces with scientific organisations across the globe to celebrate the international day of LGBTQ+ people in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
As an official supporting organisation, the Department of Biochemistry held an exhibition with information and cupcakes to celebrate diversity, openness and inclusivity both within the Department and across the STEM subjects.
But why?
LGBTQ+ people in STEM often struggle to openly be themselves:
- More than 50% of LGBT scientists are not out to most of the people that they work with,
- 28% of LGBT+ people have considered leaving their STEM workplace because of discrimination and 20% of trans people often consider leaving for the same reason,
- In the US, 1 in 3 LGBT+ physicists have been urged to stay in the closet in order to progress their careers,
- Gay and bisexual students are less likely to follow an academic career in STEM.1
The LGBT STEM Day is a day of recognition to help raise awareness and increase support. It is an important component of the global push for equality, diversity and inclusion in STEM so that everyone can openly be themselves.
The Department would like to thank everyone who attended our exhibition, Dr Dee Scadden and Debbie Canham for their tremendous baking efforts, and the Equality and Diversity Committee for organising such a fun and well-attended event.
LGBTSTEMDay is organised by Pride in STEM to increase diversity and inclusivity in the STEM subjects. As an international event, 5 July was selected as this date can be written as "507" which, in nanometres, is the wavelength of the colour green in the rainbow flag. In the US, the date is written as "705", the wavelength of the colour red.
1Exploring The Workplace for LGBT+ Physical Scientists, 2019; American Physical Society Survey, 2015; Coming out in STEM: Factors affecting retention of sexual minority STEM students, 2018; Queer in STEM, 2015.