LGBT History Month and what philosophy could learn from STEM
It’s LGBT History Month (February)
which aims to encourage equality and diversity in society. There are many
specific aims that this month tries to achieve to advance LGBTQI+ rights, education
and lives, namely:
- “Increasing the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) people, their history, lives and their experiences in the curriculum and culture of educational and other institutions, and the wider community;
- Raising awareness and advancing education on matters affecting the LGBT community;
- Working to make educational and other institutions safe spaces for all LGBT communities; and
- Promoting the welfare of LGBT people, by ensuring that the education system recognises and enables LGBT people to achieve their full potential, so they contribute fully to society and lead fulfilled lives, thus benefiting society as a whole.”
For this list and more details see: http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/about/
The world of science and technology
have been marking LGBT History month. For instance, the Royal Society have been blogging and
tweeting about it to raise awareness. However, there are also LGBT initiatives which
run throughout the year, creating a community and support network for
scientists who identify as being part of the wider LGBTQIA+ community. Last
month, the 3rd ever LGBT STEMinar took place at the University of
York, promoting collaboration and a variety of work that has been done.
The event welcomes both LGBT+ and
those who do not identify as LGBT+ but who nevertheless wish to support the
aims of this event and learn more. The LGBT STEM site includes interviews with
people who share their stories of being an ‘out’ scientist. One story I found
particularly interesting was Kirsty Flower, available at:
Kirsty did an undergraduate degree
in Biochemistry gaining a 2:1 which was all she needed to continue onto a PhD,
researching the Epstein Barr Virus and cancer, and then started her Post-doc a
few months prior to submitting and defending her PhD thesis. She credits her
two female PhD supervisors as being her role models and Prof Dame Athene Donald
as being another idol of hers, whose blog she highly recommends. What really
strikes me in this story is how she has been given so much support and has had
a great deal of positive women role models who have given her confidence,
encouragement and a smooth educational path through to her scientific career. In
the interview posted in 2014, Flower says she would like to remain in academia
and be a lecturer and indeed she has. I found her staff profile at Imperial
College, where she is currently a teaching fellow in Biomedical Science. This is a happy story showing what can be achieved
in academia when people fully take on board the above values of LGBT history month
and so are not biased against a lesbian in STEM but rather, as in Kirsty’s
case, have given her a safe space in academia to flourish and fulfil her potential.
However, this is not necessarily a typical experience of all LGBT+ people in
STEM. (And it certainly has not been my experience as a lesbian in philosophy!
Quite the opposite!)
As 31 year old Dr Luke
Boulter-Comer (Royal Society Diversity Committee) points out,
“Bias, unconscious or otherwise,
does of course exist within the scientific community, and whilst we often see
ourselves as treading a liberal and enlightened path, we need to be cautious of
complacency. A recent tweet by David Ottenheimer highlighted this and spawned
the #LGBTScience hashtag, mobilizing LGBT+ academics at all levels to give
glimpses into their journeys and stories.”
“LGBT+ inclusion in STEM is still
relatively young and it needs to be visible. The Royal Society is contributing
to inspiring change in science. Over LGBT History month in February the Royal
Society will be tweeting about inspiring scientists who are also LGBT+.
I hope that this initiative says
loudly, if you are LGBT+, you are welcome in science; the doors are open, so
get in here and be inspired.”
(For the insightful tweet by
David Ottenheimer that Luke cites, see:
For further links on LGBT+
initiatives in STEM, tweets about it and more on LGBT scientists see:
On searching for equivalent initiatives, organisations, awareness campaigns, twitter hashtags and facebook pages specifically for LGBT+ in philosophy, I came up with no matching results. This shows that Philosophy lags behind other disciplines in being LGBT+ inclusive. So I’ve been inspired to look into ways I could help to redress this, starting with #LGBTQIAphilosophy!
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