May marked the 10th anniversary of Durham Pride! The parade and walk through Durham City, which takes place every year, celebrates and highlights the need for more LGBTQ+ inclusiveness, equality and diversity.
This year Durham Pride took place over five days at the end of May, with events and activities happening all over Durham - from Queer Diaries at the Gala Theatre Durham, where adults shared their teenage diaries and memories from their youth at an open-mic night, to a day of art exhibitions from schools and colleges across Durham and Darlington.
This year Durham Pride also partnered with Durham County Cricket Club to deliver ‘Pride in Cricket’, Durham's first T20 Cricket match of the season in support of Durham Pride. We also saw the first Pride in Armed Forces Day in the UK, sponsored by Durham City Parish Council, which celebrated the contribution of LGBTQ+ armed forces personnel past and present.
The Pride parade making its way through Durham
There’s more…
If you didn’t manage to attend any of this year’s Durham Pride events, there’s still more going on throughout June and July powered by our LGBT+ Network here at the University.
LGBTQ+ staff, students and allies are invited to join a night of good company, laughter and letting our hair down at our first ever University-wide Queer Quiz of the year on 20 June.
We’re also arranging a guest speaker to deliver an online workshop on 13 July in celebration of Non-Binary Awareness Week - make sure to save the date if you’d like to attend!
One of the many banners at this year’s parade
Find out more
Besides coordinating the Pride events, Durham Pride also runs a hotline that provides services to those who have been victims of same sex domestic and/or sexual violence and abuse, hate crimes, or bullying. They also coordinate other events, like socials, throughout the year that both LGBTQ+ people and allies can attend.
Durham Pride's headquarters is at St Aidan's College and several of our staff are involved in the charity. The Principal of St Aidan's College Dr Susan Frenk is one of the founders of the charity, and College Administration Coordinator Shane McHugh, as well as University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer Siobhan Kennedy, sit on the Durham Pride Committee. Our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion team also has strong ties with the organisation and contributes financially towards Durham Pride.
The Durham University LGBT+ Network is open to all people from the LGBT+ community and allies including Durham staff, postgraduate students, as well as their partners and friends. Find out more about the network, as well as events and resources on our SharePoint page.