LGBTQ+ Club birthday celebrations with a guest speaker

We really enjoyed our LGBTQ+ Club birthday celebrations recently. Not only did the students sing Happy Birthday and enjoy cake, but they were treated to a guest speaker – Sue Sanders who is the founder of LGBT+ History month. This was a huge privilege.

Sue shared with the students her frustration at the 15 year legislation preventing anything relating to the LGBTQ+ community being mentioned; as soon as this law terminated in 2003 she went on a mission to make this community more visible. So in 2005, the first month dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community was launched at The Tate Modern, thanks to Sue’s hard work.

Sue also shared online resources including the 2022 badge which has been designed by a youth group in Manchester, and encouraged Fairfield students to rise to the challenge next year.

Students shared with Sue what LGBTQ+ month means to them – essentially that it makes history generally more interesting to teach, that it’s inclusive, that it relates to people of all ages and for all of these reasons how important it is to bring it into schools.

Our students also talked about the club and the positive changes it has had throughout the school, for example adding chosen pronouns to the register.

Sue praised Fairfield for its efforts in celebrating and visualising LGBTQ+ and why this was so important. She commented that the culture of an organisation is key to its inclusivity and thinking on a school wide level, and that Fairfield has this in abundance.