The University of Plymouth LGBT+ Staff Network is a place to meet peers, make friends, and have fun! We are here to provide a safe place where you can be yourself and spend time with colleagues who understand your experiences.

This is a confidential and inclusive space; we encourage all LGBT+ staff to join including those outside the acronym, whether or not you are ‘out’ to other colleagues. The LGBT+ Staff Network is also an opportunity for our individual voices to come together, so that as a group, we can raise issues, contribute to the University’s EDI policy, and help ensure the workplace culture is welcoming for everyone at the University.

We have monthly meetings on a Wednesday lunch time where we discuss any issues raised by our LGBT+ staff. The meeting also has a large social element. We have monthly socials which range from walks to pubs to games nights to showing LGBT+ films. We have an LGBT+ Self-Assessment Team which includes volunteer members of the LGBT+ Network who discuss and implement change relating to our Stonewall submission.

If you are not LGBT+ but would like to be an Ally to the community the LGBT+ Staff Network also runs three LGBT+ Allies Training sessions and 3 or 4 Allies events each year as well as a quarterly newsletter covering topics like How to be a Trans Ally, LGBT+ History, LGBT+ people in science etc.

Our Aims:

• To provide an opportunity for LGBT+ staff to network both inside and outside the University and to offer possibilities for social and professional peer support.
• Create visibility for the LGBT+ staff community at the University of Plymouth and act as an information / welcome point for new LGBT+ staff and all new colleagues.
• Be a safe point of contact for all LGBT+ staff.
• Support the development of an LGBT+ friendly culture at the University of Plymouth.
• Provide first level support to LGBT+ staff who feel they are being bullied or harassed on the grounds of sexual orientation or sexual identity.
• Raise awareness of issues affecting our LGBT+ staff, especially those affecting bi, transgender, gender diverse, non-binary, and gender non-conforming staff.
• Advise and give feedback on University policy development and associated practice.
• To provide information and training to allow our non-LGBT+ colleagues to be effective LGBT+ Allies and support the LGBT+ staff and students at the University.