Pembroke College Cambridge

Headlining LGBT+ History Month with Leadership, Visibility and Community

The headline event of the excellent LGBT+ History Month series organised by some of our graduate students was the LGBT+ Leadership panel.LGBT+ panel

The speakers were a diverse range of people, from Lord Chris Smith, Master of Pembroke, to Anna Marsden, a local business owner and trustee for SexYOUality.  The discussion was chaired by Dr Miriam Lynn, the Equality and Diversity Consultant at the University of Cambridge.

The discussion held had a very sincere quality, with all the speakers acknowledging that there are different ways to be leaders, and that the act of being visible can influence individuals in a very personal way, even if the ‘leader’ in question is not explicitly aware of it.

Visibility is complex.  For Lord Smith, part of it was showing that an LGBT+ person can do just as good a job as anyone else, and he went about this partly by making a name for himself in areas of politics not specifically associated with LGBT+ rights or issues.  In the aftermath of his very public 1984 coming out, Lord Smith received letters saying, among other things, ‘thank you’; letters from people who were more comfortable with themselves because of him.  Public figures being free and happy talking about their sexuality are, in a very direct way, helping people who are scared and alone.

LGBT+-Leadership--(9)-(small)A point expressed by several of the speakers was that progress happens through changing social attitudes, which happens through encounters with L GBT+ individuals.  In this sense, any visible person is a leader, whether they are a public figure or not.

Alison Hennegan, journalist and campaigner, has had a strong connection with LGBT+ rights and issues.  Her PhD, had it been completed, would have been the start of academic queer studies as a discipline.  From then she was part of the Campaign for homosexual equality (pre-Stonewall), became the National Organiser of FRIEND, and was headhunted by Gay News, becoming their literary editor.  Books, she argued, were a key part of the movement, and helping curate and make visible the expanding literature on LGBT+ issues was extremely relevant work.   She continued this work later as the editor of the Women’s Press book club.  Alison is now a Fellow and lecturer at Trinity College.

[caption id="attachment_27722" align="alignright" width="300"]Tam,-George,-Maya,-Marion-5-(small) The organisers, four of the Pembroke Graduate community[/caption]

From one type of public service to another; Revd Andrew Hammond was next, talking about his experiences in the church.  It’s a unique context, and both leadership and advocacy are different within it.  Leadership, for example, is perhaps the wrong word for a Priest, whose work is about serving, not leading.  But again, being visible, being out, is its own form of leadership.

Anna Marsden, business owner and trustee for SexYOUality also questioned what leadership means, and acknowledged the work of the people that came before.  As someone with support from family and friends, Anna said she felt she had a duty to be visible.  Anna was very strong on the concept of visibility as leadership, emphasising several times that change comes about through individuals who are able to be visible in their communities, and therefore support or challenge the people around them.

Asked about the future, the overwhelming message from the speakers was to ‘keep going’

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