Swinburne Pride Week celebrates inclusion and awareness with LGBTIQ+ community

Swinburne Pride Week 2020 celebrated its LGBTIQ+ community through an inclusive and supportive virtual environment including a week-long series of online festivities.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, Swinburne Pride 2020 took place across a diverse series of online events, discussions and virtual Pride march.

The theme, #proudtogether, acknowledged that although we were physically apart this year, our celebration of Pride brings our community together.

#proudtogether

Students, staff, alumni, and industry and community partners joined the virtual celebrations to show their support including sharing our Swinburne Pride artwork on social media and by using our virtual backgrounds.

Swinburne’s Media and Communications team was one of many who celebrated using the Swinburne Pride backgrounds.

The Swinburne Pride filter and hashtag ‘#proudtogether’ were shared across social media.

LGBTIQ+ community experiences at Swinburne

Pride Week events promoting LGBTIQ+ awareness and support included awareness training sessions led by Pride in Diversity, student writing workshops with researcher, writer and award-winning poet Dr Quinn Eades, and a Swinburne Pride Stories panel discussion where students, alumni and staff shared their experiences.

Panellist at Swinburne’s Pride Stories discussion, Deputy Director and ARC Future Fellow, Dr Deanne Fisher, says Swinburne’s genuine commitment to introducing new initiatives plays a key role in creating an inclusive environment.

“The preferred names initiative is a big deal for transgender students because it allows individuals to use the name that is more true to themselves, and to have that name recognised electronically in emails and on Canvas makes life a lot easier for those students.”

“The community at Swinburne make the effort to create an inclusive environment. People are open and interested to listen if you find an issue and many people genuinely do want to make things better. There are always things to improve at any workplace, but Swinburne does try which is a good feeling.”National not-for-profit employer support program for LGBTIQ+ workplace inclusion, Pride in Diversity, hosted two training sessions on gender as part of the celebrations and shared their top three tips for being an ally:

• Be informed. Attend training sessions, talk to friends, family or colleagues in the LGBTIQ+ community, read related publications, social media and videos.
• Be visible. Promote yourself as an ally, wear a pin (LGBTIQ+ community and allies often 'look for rainbows' or visible signs that they are welcome and included), celebrate days of significance
• Be part of the solution. Advocate for inclusive language, take a stand against slurs, jokes or negative comments.

Recordings of the training sessions are available on Swinburne Commons:

• Let’s Talk Gender
• Swinburne Pride LGBTIQ+ Awareness Training
• Inclusive Language Webinar (hosted by Safer Community)

Swinburne’s commitment to our LGBTIQ+ community

At Swinburne, we’re made up of a community of students and staff from diverse sexes, sexual orientations and gender identities. We're committed to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for our LGBTIQ+ community and culture, free from discrimination and harassment.

Swinburne has dedicated support services for its LGBTIQ+ community, including counselling and support, Swinburne’s Queer Space, student club – the Queer Collective and a growing number of other initiatives.

Swinburne has introduced further initiatives to support members of the LGBTIQ+ community, particularly transgender and gender diverse staff and students. This includes programs to support gender transition, gender-neutral bathrooms on all campuses, and using preferred student names in university communications.

To learn more about the events, visit our Swinburne Pride 2020 event listing