QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY STEPS OUT WITH PRIDE

05 August 2019

Hundreds of Queen’s staff, students and family members joined the Belfast Pride Parade over the weekend (Saturday 3 August), the biggest cross community parade in the city.

Organisers described the main event in the LGBTQ calendar as a ‘protest and a celebration, a call for equality, a stand for solidarity and a celebration of the lives of LGBT+ people in Belfast’, under the 2019 theme of 'Rights Now'.

The family-friendly Pride Parade was one of the key events in this year’s Belfast Pride festival – which included more than 100 events over the course of 10 days – which kicked off on July 26.

Queen’s staff and students have been regular participants in the annual Pride Parade, which this year also saw the PSNI, Ulster Rugby, Antrim GAA, BBC and UTV – as well as more than 100 other organisations – taking part in what is believed to have been the biggest parade to date.

Over 600 people from Queen’s had registered by the closing date, far exceeding the 230 staff who took part in last year’s parade.

PRISM, Queen’s LGBT+ Staff Network was officially launched last November to promote the University as a welcoming place to work for members of the LGBT+ community and specifically to provide information, confidential support and advice on sexual orientation or gender identity issues and to create and run a small social programme to encourage participation.
The University was nominated in two categories in this year’s Pride Awards – "Employer of the Year" and "Pride Ally – Business" classifications.

Organised by Belfast Pride, the event has support from other LGBT groups including The Rainbow Project, HEReNI and Cara Friend, kicking off at Custom House Square at 1PM, before it made its way around the city centre.

Although the official figures have not been released, staff and students from the University joined a significant crowd of organisations and onlookers on Saturday. Parade organisers were hoping to exceed the 2018 figure of 55,000, a far cry from the 100 people who took part in the city's first Pride Parade back in 1991. Ireland's Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, was also present at the march. In 2017, he had attended a number of Pride events, but this is the first appearance of the political leader at the main parade.

You can view our gallery of photos from the event on the Queen’s University Facebook page, by clicking here.

To submit graduate news items, or for general enquiries about this story, please contact Gerry Power, Communications Officer, Development and Alumni Relations Office, Queen's University Belfast or telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 5321.

 

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