ATU Celebrates Pride Month

What is Pride and why do we celebrate it?

Pride is an opportunity for people from the LGBTQ+ community and their allies to come together to celebrate sexual and gender diversity and support their LGBTQ+ friends and colleagues.

Pride month commemorates the Stonewall riots, which lasted 6 days in Manhattan in June 1969 as police clashed with LGBTQ+ protesters.

How did Pride start?

It came about as a response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York on June 28, 1969. The Inn was popular with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Patrons of the venue, other nearby lesbian and gay bars and local people fought back when the police became violent.

Subsequently, groups got together to commemorate the event and the bravery of those who had stood up for themselves and their community. They decided on the name "Gay Pride" to indicate that those involved were proud to be who they were. The group held the first Gay Pride march in New York a year to the day of the original riots.

As well as being a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, modern parades also continue the legacy of protest, highlighting inequalities that still exist and the persecution of LGBTQ+ people in various parts of the world. It is still a crime to be LGBTQ+ in over 70 countries.

What does Pride mean to Atlantic TU?

Pride in ATU is not just about celebrating in June every year. We want to celebrate and embed Pride in our university culture. We are proud of the diversity of our staff and students and want to do everything possible to empower them to bring their whole selves to Atlantic TU.

In April with the support of ATU’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion office, colleagues in ATU set up AURA, our new LGBTQ+ Staff and Allies Network. AURA brings together the existing staff networks in Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal and complements the LGBTQ+ student societies already in place.

It hopes to work closely with the student societies and LGBTQ+ organisations within the west and north-west regions and beyond. The network is currently working on developing its core values, terms of reference and a calendar of events for the forthcoming academic year.