lgbtq

I’m hosting a webinar for LGBT+ History Month

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A photo of the official LGBT+ History Month 2025 badge.

It’s February, which means that it’s LGBT+ History Month in the UK. LGBT+ History Month started in 2005, so this year is its 20th anniversary year, and the theme for this year is ‘activism and social change’.

In 2021, when we were back in lockdown, I hosted and co-hosted a couple of webinars through work. One was about Section 28, the legislation in force during my years at school which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools. The second was a panel discussion with two other colleagues about what it is to be bisexual and some debunking some common myths about bisexuality.

This year, I’m hosting another webinar, with the rather long title of ‘From Ace to Zir – the A-Z of LGBTQ+‘. Over the space of an hour, I’ll be delivering a glossary of LGBTQ+ terms, including what they mean, and when to use them (or not use them if they’re now considered slurs). Starting with A, and terms like asexual, I’ll be going though each letter of the alphabet to help LGBTQ+ and their allies to understand the various terminology used. Many of these words are relatively new, and so I’m hoping it’s useful. I’ve also tried to include as many of the various pride flags as I can.

The webinar is free to attend – here’s the Eventbrite link to register. We’re also hosting several other webinars this month:

  • The fight for liberation – How it all started, about the Stonewall riots.
  • Queer South Asians – Looking back and forward, about South Asians with queer identities, especially in Bradford, and hosted by my colleague Usman
  • Stonewall postal action network documentary screening with Austin Allen, a screening of a short documentary and a discussion with Austin Allen, who ran a postal LGBT action network from his home in Queensbury, near Bradford.

There are also other events taking place across the wider Bradford district during February – details are available here.

Whilst Pride Month takes place in July, LGBT+ History Month is also important and different. Pride is, depending on your view, a protest and/or a celebration for LGBTQ+ people and allies. Whereas LGBT+ History Month has a more educational focus, looking at LGBT+ people in history and the key events that have pushed LGBT+ rights forwards (and sometimes backwards). As I work for a university, LGBT+ History Month is closer to our mission, and also happens during term time. Pride, alas, takes place when our undergraduate students are on their summer break.

By the way, if you want to buy the pin badge shown in the image above, here’s the link.

How to: view and share pronouns on Bluesky

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A screenshot of a skeet that I posted recently on Bluesky, which displays my pronouns (he/him) under my name. The skeet says 'Huh, accidentally pressed Alt+D whilst Spotify (desktop version) was open, and opened a hidden Chrome menu. None of the options seem to do anything, but yes, it seems like just about everything is based on Chromium nowadays.'

If you want to share your pronouns on Bluesky, and/or want to be able to see others’ pronouns, then you can use the Pronouns labeller to show these in the Bluesky app. In the screenshot above, you can see that, under my username, it shows my he/him pronouns.

Step 1: Viewing pronouns

If you want to be able to view others pronouns, go to the Pronouns labeller profile, and click the ‘Subscribe’ button. Now, you’ll be able to view the pronouns of other Bluesky users, where they’ve elected to share them, as a label attached their posts and on their profiles.

Step 2: Sharing your pronouns

So now that you can see the pronouns of other users, you can also share your own pronouns. There’s a search tool available; select the pronouns that most apply to you, and then ‘like’ the corresponding Bluesky post. For example, I liked this post because my pronouns are he/him.

Within a minute or two, those pronouns will appear as a label on your profile. You can select up to four pronouns to share.

If you make a mistake, you can ‘like’ this post, and all of your pronouns will be removed. Once this takes effect, you can then start again.

Just a note that you can’t complete this step in isolation. In other words, you must have the labeller turned on and showing the pronouns of others, before you can share yours.

It’s all opt-in

Whilst I’m a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I think it’s important to share your pronouns regardless. As well as showing that you’re an ally, it normalises the act of sharing pronouns when you introduce yourself, and makes LGBTQ+ people like myself feel more included. At work, our standard email signature template includes a pronouns section, and it’s used at all levels including senior management to set a good example.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t share your pronouns manually in your Bluesky bio. This profile labeller is opt-in, and, as yet, Bluesky doesn’t have a great way of letting users discover profile labellers. In my experience, it tends to be the early adopters of Bluesky who use the pronouns profile labeller; recent arrivals haven’t found it yet.