Carley is no stranger to the joys of building strong LGBTQ+ staff and student networks: Ever since graduating from university in 2012, she’s been working with higher education institutions to set up LGBTQ+ groups and events for their communities. So far, she’s managed hundreds of student groups, ensuring university activities are aligned with EDI inclusive practices, all the while working with other LGBTQ+ organisations around Manchester and London to give LGBTQ+ people spaces to connect and be heard.
We recently caught up with Carley to spotlight her history of community engagement for LGBTQ+ History Month and what she’s hoping to achieve in the future.
I came to UAL after a few years of working as the Events Manager at the University of East London, where I felt I was given a platform and a role model, as my Chief Marketing Officer was also an out and proud lesbian and very much in favour of getting a staff network set up at the university. It was a very diverse group of staff and students, but ‘LGBTQ’ was always avoided and considered a bit of a taboo topic. I set up a new LGBTQ+ staff network there and alongside introducing LGBTQ+ rainbow pedestrians crossings on each campus, alongside multiple events, I managed to get a spot in the London Pride Parade in 2019 for the first time ever in the institution's history, just before lockdown.
At UAL, I became a part of the network here in 2022. Obviously, because COVID hit, this stopped lots of events happening. So, I've had to be a little bit creative in terms of virtual events, and then post-COVID, I set up my own LGBTQ+ community events group, ‘First Sight Events’, aimed at getting the friendships and relationships back that we lost during COVID.
This meant working with multiple venues across London and getting every part of the community together for events such as supper clubs, book clubs, speed dating and more.
It starts with that word ‘platform’ and giving it to people who might not know they need it. It’s important to be able to create these platforms in my job as Student Experience Manager at UAL, where I put on events for students and give them a chance to shout to the world about how amazing they are or the work that they do.
There is no better working sector that I can think of than higher education (HE) that is more diverse and makes this possible for staff and students. It's why I've loved working in it. Especially with UAL and the demographic of students and the creativity and all-round amazingness that students and staff bring allow for our platform to reach higher levels than just the institution; it's going wider, reaching the likes of Pride in London or Stonewall. So, it's really important that we push it not just internally, but externally. What a perfect platform to do that.
However, I think the world is yet to catch up with how amazing HE institutions are at being able to allow individuality for our students. We need to think about how we’re sending our students out into a world that is still trailing behind; we still have homophobic attacks on queer people in the street, on transport and people lobbying against teaching about LGBTQ+ positivity and relationships. We are still so far behind, which is why I'll be working with many organisations including UAL and Pride in London on doing community outreach to schools and beyond.
In 2022, we received the gold award for the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, which is amazing. That happened through completing many benchmarking tools to be leading the sector for LGBTQ+ inclusion. I also became the main instigator in getting us a place in this year's Pride in London parade.
I work with Pride in London as the Head of Year-Round events. This means I don’t just support the parade, as it’s just one day but work with the community every single week - Pride for me is every single day.
I hope this is something that we can continue to do as an institution - attending Pride in London and doing a lot more collaborative work with the student network.
I literally had no idea I was going to be nominated! I think it's the first time that they're hosting the awards. It's the season now for all the LGBTQ+ awards: You've got the Diva Awards, you've got Rainbow Honours, you've got Pride, who’ll be doing their own awards as well. It's peak time for LGBTQ+ community recognition.
It was actually my partner and my best friend, who told me they nominated me, and I think they spread the word across to my colleagues and people that I'd known - I didn't have a clue about it! But it's lovely to be shortlisted. The shortlist for the category I’m in includes a bake-off finalist who is an activist amongst the LGBTQ+ Polish community, and a famous drag queen who set up performances in schools for children to be aware of LGBTQ+ rights, so I really don't think there's a chance I’ll win but it’s nice to be recognised.
I'm a trustee for a disability awareness charity called Enhance the UK. They're massive on inclusion for all types of disabilities, with LGBTQ+ issues also being a main focus for them. I've kind of been the front face of that as a trustee for the charity and one of the only ones that identifies as part of the community. I've done podcasts and blogs with them, and I'm doing training with their staff and external companies and businesses that come to them for disability inclusion. We've now added the LGBTQ+ part on for that.
I've also got a panel discussion that’s going to be held at LCC later this month with panelists from various communities, including the trans and the Muslim community, the pansexual community, and it’s all about LGBTQ+ issues and coming out, including the challenges and the fabulousness that comes with that. We've got lots of students as part of that as well, both UAL students and alumni, I hope many UAL staff and students can attend.
There's quite a lot! I'll be working with Enhance the UK on reaching out to communities across the UK and worldwide, so trips abroad to spread this message. I’ve already travelled to Serbia to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ rights. I’m also working closely with students here for LGBTQ+ History Month and Pride in London. I'm working on the parade and there's a brand-new website that's been launched that I'm the head of called ‘Coming Out’, working with all the venues, community groups and charities across London to give them a platform to promote their LGBTQ+ events.
The website is a bit like Eventbrite or OutSavvy, but it's set up through Pride in London. My team and I will be managing all the LGBTQ+ events open to the community all year round. It hits every community group, every business, every charity that's doing something related to LGBTQ+ History Month and beyond, because we know Pride is every day, not just a month or a parade.
You can always reach out to me specifically or social.programme@arts.ac.uk. We always welcome ideas from students within accommodation and wider. We’re here to help, support with funding and give them the platform they need to raise awareness about their ideas in the community. Whether they're a part of LGBTQ+ community or an ally, we're here to help them in any way.
It's about talking openly and never being afraid to ask questions, whether it's someone's sexuality, their pronouns or what LGBTQ+ stands for in general, because there are so many acronyms, I'm still learning them! We need to keep being open-minded to different people and the different parts of the community if we want to dispel prejudice and discrimination. Then maybe we can make the world a little better each day at a time.
For this year's LGBTQ+ History Month theme ‘Behind the Lens’, we spotlight LCC alum Emma Martin, who's been documenting the queer tattoo artist community of London in her project titled 'qttr'.
For this year's LGBTQ+ History Month theme ‘Behind the Lens’, we spotlight LCC alum and photographer Tim Boddy, who documents queer spaces and those keeping them alive.
We caught up with activist and filmmaker Jamie Chi and LCC graduates Ying Zeng (Zing) and Qianlin (Bling) Wang about their documentary 'Safe Distance' and what change they’d like to see in the creative industries for the LGBTQ+ community.
For this year's LGBTQ+ History Month theme ‘Behind the Lens’, we spotlight CSM graduate Orlando who documents London's queer and drag community, placing importance on how it gives expression and image to all the new gender identities that are emerging in recent years.