The university has invested in new Progress lanyards; these represent the Progress flag, which has been adopted by the LGBTQIA+ community and now flies from the Trent Building on key occasions like LGBT+ History Month.

The Progress flag uses the original rainbow flag but includes black and brown to represent people of colour within the community, and the colours pink, light blue and white to represent trans, non-binary and intersex people as well as those across the gender spectrum.

The Progress lanyards will be distributed to those in the university who demonstrate allyship to the LGBTQIA+ community, such as by attending an LGBT+ History Month event throughout February – including the central event on Friday 24 February, Behind the Rainbow: Demystifying LGBTQIA+.

To commemorate LGBT+ History Month, the university’s LGBTQIA+ Staff Network has also produced an inspiring short film focused on coming out as it has been experienced by members of the staff and student community at UoN.

In the video, we see that every coming out story is different. Grace, Myles, Rowan, James and Heather share their coming out stories with Craig Butterworth, co-chair of the university’s LGBTQIA+ Staff Network.

Watch the video below: