A few days after Pride in Sport Week at Warwick ended; I caught up with Jen and Sara, members of the Warwick Pride’s Women’s group to chat about the agenda and achievements of one of campus’s most vibrant societal groups.
Hi guys! Warwick Pride is obviously the first go-to group for any LGBTQA+ students – how many people are involved?
In terms of numbers, estimated members are between 200 and 300. Events can range from hosting just a few people up to the size of the welcome buffet! One of the things we do is have separate socials for the different representative groups – like Women’s, Trans, Bisexual, Postgraduate and Mature, and even more! So these individual groups obviously don’t have huge socials for themselves but are still super important as they function as specified support units within the Pride family unit.
Awesome! Speaking very generally, what are the main aims and agenda of Warwick Pride?
We have three main branches here at Warwick Pride: Welfare, campaigns and socials. Welfare is about the needs to LGBT+ students here at the university, doing things like the parenting scheme -where people can sign up to be assigned two pride “parents” who meet up with you and go to pride events with you until you’re confident doing it yourself . Campaigns are longer term projects like the gender neutral toilets campaign. And socials are primarily just for fun, but of course we are always careful to make sure they are accessible to everyone, hence the safe space policy which essentially promotes a zero tolerance policy on harassment or bullying. Basically, we try to cover all bases, though how much focus is invested where depends on the interests of the current executives in response to the consensus of members.
How is the campaign for Gender Neutral Toilets going?
The toilets campaign is going well, we’re at around 550 signatures on our petition now, we’ve been putting up posters during pride week, we’ve had support from the Students Union and we’re starting to talk to the university officials about getting the toilets put in place.
How does Warwick Pride connect with other university groups across the UK?
We do sometimes collaborate with other societies, but most of our collaboration is with other liberation societies, like Warwick Anti Sexism Society and Warwick Anti-Racism Society, who we regularly collaborate and advertise each other’s events with.
What kinds of events are put on and how does Warwick Pride appeal to women?
Socials include meals, coffee meetups, our regular Terrace bar social, club nights, discussions, film nights, trips off campus… anything that somebody wants to run… we’re open to all suggestions within reason!