Deemed as a great success, LSESU’s Pride Week is over. The special week included a Drag show, film screening and several socials. The campaign’s purpose is to celebrate the LGBT+ community at the university. The general feeling from students is that the LGBT+ community is an often-overlooked minority in many settings, including the LSE. Will Priest, President of the Pride Alliance, the LSESU’s LGBT+ Society, says: ‘We are creating a voice, visibility and celebration’ for the community” with these campaigns.
The week was received positively, many students making their way to the colourful stand set up for the event, waving LGBT+ flags. Bex Dudley, LGBT+ Students’ Officer, wrote on the Pride Week Event Page: “Thank you so so SO much to everyone who’s been a part of it- from coming to events to taking part in the stall to helping organise events, everyone has been SO valuable, and we really can’t thank you enough.”
Some occurrences proved that there is still much work to be done in the LSE community. In anticipation of Pride Week 2017, posters put up, publicising events such as a drag show and the week itself. These posters were then maliciously taken down. It was a shock to the LSE community as the whole of the SU building was combed for posters advertising the drag and other pride events. This has been deemed a deliberate act of sabotage as other posters, including those which are out of date, have been left untouched.
Drag is recognised as a queer art form as it expresses and explores the breaking down of gender and sexuality, something that is central to the LGBT+ community. Incidences like this have been deemed a clear indicator of discrimination and hate against the community. There has not been any light on the issue of who could have taken down the posters. The LGBT+ community ‘are determined to fight back’ against the attack.
Regardless of attempts to demean its importance, the drag show was a success, with more than 200 people in attendance, the show reached full capacity. Pride Week’s other events such as the Pub quiz, LGBT+ disabilitiTEA and film screening, also proved to be instances in which people of all walks of life could come together and celebrate the LGBT+ community.
