LGBTQ+ at CSU

Cardiff Students' Union plays a pivotal role in creating a welcoming space for all. With inclusivity at its heart, the Students' Union provides a platform for individuals to express themselves freely and engage in a wide range of activities that promote understanding, acceptance, and social cohesion through societies, clubs, and events throughout the year.

Cardiff Students’ Union and Cardiff University proudly announces its participation in the upcoming Pride Cymru march, which will take place on June 17th and 18th in the vibrant Cardiff City Centre. The University and Students’ Union, recognised for their commitment to diversity and inclusion, are excited to join this momentous event that celebrates the rich LGBTQ+ culture in Wales. Join us for a free breakfast before the march! Just fill in this form to confirm any dietry and accessability needs.

In February, we celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month, which was important to not only celebrate how far we have come as a society, but to also acknowledge the struggle and sacrifices of those who helped the community get where we are now. There is still a huge war ahead of us, but it is important to celebrate our community and all the progress that we have made.

Check out our Pride merch here!

Events

Sat 17th June

Pride Cymru: 2023: 17th June noon - 18th June 10:30pm; Cardiff City Centre; PRIDE CYMRU is a volunteer-led charity that works to promote the elimination of discrimination be it on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion or ability.

Support

Student Advice - Student Advice is a free, confidential and independent service available for students of Cardiff University. We are independent of the University and our role is to give you impartial advice and guidance and help you understand the options available to you.

MindOut - MindOut is a mental health service run by and for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Mind Out work to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all LGBTQ communities and to make mental health a community concern. Mind Out recognise that our communities are wonderfully diverse and welcome all LGBTQ+ people including those who identify as asexual, aromantic, pansexual, non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid and intersex.

LGBT Foundation - LGBT Foundation are a national charity with LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing at the heart of everything they do. They celebrate and empower LGBTQ+ individuals and our diverse communities to realise their full potential, every day. They provide services and activities that give a lifeline to those in need, offering hope and support on their journey towards achieving their aspirations.

NHS - It might not be easy, but getting help with issues you're struggling to deal with on your own is one of the most important things you can do. Talking with a therapist who's trained to work with LGBTQ+ people may help with their issues.

The Queer Emporium - If you are struggling to find like-minded people who share the same views and passions as you, The Queer Emporium's Community Events are designed to be affordable, interactive, and small-scale. Most events run on a bi-weekly or monthly basis and include a queer women's reading group, dog walks, a communal play reading session, Speed Friendshipping and more!

LGBTQ+ Media Recommendations

Documentaries

Before Stonewall (1984) dir. Greta Schiller & Robert Rosenburg
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989) dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020) dir. Sam Feder
How to Survive a Plague (2012) dir. David France
Paris Is Burning (1990) dir. Jenny Livingston
The Celluloid Closet (1995) dir. Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) dir. David France
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) dir. Rob Epstein

TV Shows

It’s a Sin (2021-present) created by Russell T. Davies
Pose (2018-present) created by Ryan Murphy
Queer as Folk (1999-2000) created by Russell T. Davies
Queers (2017) created by Mark Gatiss
When We Rise (2017) created by Dustin Lance Black

Films

Milk (2008) dir. Gus Van Sant
Pride (2014) dir. Matthew Warchus
Summerland (2020) dir. Jessica Swale
The Imitation Game (2014) dir. Morten Tyldum

Podcasts

Bad Gays (2019-present) hosted by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller
Making Gay History (2016-present) hosted by Eric Marcus

Books

Before Wilde: Sex between Men in Britain's Age of Reform by Charles Upchurch (2009)
Chasing a Ghost by D. A. Ravenscroft (2019)
Chasing a Legacy by D. A. Ravenscroft (2020)
Coming Out: The Emergence of LGBT Identities in Britain from the 19^th Century to the Present by Jeffrey Weeks (2016)
Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women's Experience of Modern War by Laura Doan (2013)
Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret by Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor (2003)
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Forbidden Lives: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Stories from Wales by Norena Shopland (2017)
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (2006)
Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian & Gay Equal Rights by Eric Marcus (2002)
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America by Lillian Faderman (1991)
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (1985)
Pride: The Unlikely Story of the True Heroes of the Miner’s Strike ed. by Tim Tate (2017)
Queer City: Gay London From the Romans to Present Day by Peter Ackroyd (2017)
Queer Wales: The History, Culture and Politics of Queer Life in Wales ed. by Huw Osborne (2016)
Reports from the Holocaust: the Making of an AIDS Activist by Larry Kramer (1989)
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (1993)
Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter (2010)
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century by Graham Robb (2005)
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo (1987)
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2012)
The Stonewall Reader ed. by Jason Baumann (2019)
Troublemaker for Justice: The Story of Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March on Washington by Walter Naegle (2019)
When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones (2016)
The House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens by Channing Joseph (2021) (2016)

History

A timeline of LGBTQ+ History

1909:The transgender writer Irene Clyde publishes Beatrice the Sixteenth, a science fiction utopian novel set in an egalitarian post gender society.
1912:London's first gay pub Madame Strindgberg's The Cave of the Golden Calf opens in Heddon Street, off Regent Street.
1945: Sir Harold Gillies and his colleague Ralph Millard carried out female-to-male confirmation surgery on Michael Dillon. Initially developed as reconstructive surgery, phalloplasty is now offered as a genital surgery option for trans men. Dillon underwent at least 13 surgeries between 1946 and 1949 and was elected for surgery on the pretext of treating a malformation of the Urethra (hypospadias), in order to conceal the exact nature of the surgery.
1951:Roberta Cowell becomes the first British person to undergo male-to-female confirmation surgery on 16 May.
1956:The Sexual Offences Act recognises the crime of sexual assault between women.
1959:Alan Horsfall, Labour councillor for Nelson, Lancashire, tables a motion to his local Labour party to back the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The motion is rejected, but Horsfall and fellow activist Antony Grey later form the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee.
1959:ITV, at the time the UK's only national commercial broadcaster, broadcasts the UK's first gay TV drama; South, starring Peter Wyngarde.
1965:In the House of Lords, Lord Arran proposed the decriminalisation of male homosexual acts (lesbian acts had never been illegal).
1969: Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) formed as the first British Gay Activist Group. In Scotland, Gay Rights Organisation the Scottish Minorities Group is founded.
1972: The First British Gay Pride Rally was held in London with 1000 people marching from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park.
1972:Gay News, Britain's first gay newspaper was founded.
1974: Maureen Colquhoun comes out as the first Lesbian MP for the Labour Party.
1977: The first gay lesbian Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference took place to discuss workplace rights for Gays and Lesbians.
1980:The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 decriminalised homosexual acts between two men over 21 years of age "in private" in Scotland. British documentary A Change of Sex aired on BBC2, enabling viewers to follow the social and medical transition of Julia Grant. This programme also provided a snapshot of the Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital in London.
1982:Terry Higgins dies of AIDS in St Thomas' Hospital London, his friends and partner Martyn Butler set up the Terry Higgins Trust (which became the Terrence Higgins Trust), the first UK AIDS charity.
1988: Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 is enacted as an amendment to the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1986, on 24 May 1988 stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". The Act was introduced by Margaret Thatcher
1989: The campaign group Stonewall UK is set up to oppose Section 28 and other barriers to equality.
1991: Gay Activist, Derek Jarman makes the Christopher Marlowe play Edward II from the early 1590s into a film which used modern costumes and made overt reference to the gay rights movement and the Stonewall riots. Queen singer Freddie Mercury announced that he had AIDS; he dies the following day.
1996:A breakthrough is made in the area of AIDS treatment; Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) is found to significantly delay the onset of AIDS in people living with HIV. The NHS makes the treatment available in the UK. HAART has a dramatic effect and many bed ridden AIDS patients return to work.
1997:Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey, becomes the first MP to come out voluntarily as a lesbian. Gay partners were given equal immigration rights. Equality Network established in Scotland.
2001:The last two pieces of unequal law regarding gay male sex are changed.
2002:Same-sex couples are granted equal rights to adopt. Alan Duncan becomes the first Conservative MP to admit being gay without being pushed. Brian Dowling becomes the first openly gay children's television presenter in the UK on SMTV Live.
2003:Section 28, which banned councils and schools from intentionally promoting homosexuality, is repealed in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
2004:The Civil Partnership Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government, giving same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is passed by the Labour Government. The Act gives binary trans people legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate, affording them full recognition of their acquired sex in law for all purposes, including marriage.
2007:The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations becomes law on 30 April making discrimination against lesbians and gay men in the provision of goods and services illegal.
2008:Treatment of lesbian parents and their children is equalised in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. The legislation allows for lesbians and their partners equal access to legal presumptions of parentage from the moment the child is born.
2009:The Labour Government Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an official public apology on behalf of the British Government for the way in which Alan Turing was chemically castrated for being gay, after the Second World War. Opposition leader David Cameron apologises on behalf of the Conservative Party, for introducing Section 28 during Margaret Thatcher's third government
2011:England, Wales and Scotland allow gay and bi men to donate blood after a 1-year deferral period.
2014:Same-sex marriage becomes legal in England and Wales on 29 March under the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. Legislation to allow same-sex marriage in Scotland was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2014, received Royal Assent on 12 March 2014 and took effect on 16 December 2014. Queen Elizabeth II praises the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard for their 40-year history, the first time the Crown has ever publicly supported the LGBT community. The Switchboard receives a comment from the Queen saying: "Best wishes and congratulations to all concerned on this most special anniversary."
2016:There are 40 LGBT MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which in 2016 is the most in any parliament around the world.
2018:Lord Ivar Mountbatten married his same-sex partner, James Coyle, on 22 September 2018, becoming the first member of the British Monarch's extended family to have a same-sex wedding.
2019:Laverne Cox was one of fifteen women chosen by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue; this made Cox the first openly transgender woman to appear on the cover of British Vogue
2020: On 2 January 2020, UK MP Layla Moran revealed in an interview with PinkNews that she is pansexual; she is believed to be the first UK parliamentarian to come out as pansexual.
2020: On 13 January same-sex marriage becomes legal in Northern Ireland. In February, the first same-sex marriage takes place in Northern Ireland.