LGBT+ History Month provides an opportunity to celebrate and highlight lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) engineers, as well as looking at current and historic barriers to inclusion. It is a chance to present tools and resources that can help develop a more inclusive culture within engineering for LGBT+ engineers.
In the UK, LGBT+ History Month is celebrated annually in February to coincide with abolition of section 28 of the local government act in 2003, which made it illegal to ‘promote homosexuality’ in education.
According to research conducted by the Academy:
- LGB* engineers are less likely to say ‘I can be open about my sexual orientation’ – 55% of lesbian engineers, 48% of gay engineers and 53% of bisexual engineers compared to 90% of heterosexual engineers
- 34% of LGB engineers belong to employee networks compared to 10% of heterosexual engineers
- lesbian engineers reported more isolation, fewer career opportunities and received less respect than their gay, bisexual and heterosexual counterparts
The Academy, working together with InterEngineering, the national network of LGBT engineers, will share information during February through a social media campaign. This will be shared on Twitter at @RAEngNews, using the hashtags #EngDiversity and #LGBTHM21
Find Out more here: https://www.raeng.org.uk/LGBTHM2021