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First of all, can you tell us how you are and your role within the University.<\/strong><\/p>\n My name is Imroze Sahota. I\u2019m a Team Leader for the Student Retention and Success Team within Student Support<\/p>\n What does it mean to you to be an LGBTQ+ ally? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Someone who defends and supports the LGBTQ community.<\/strong> It\u2019s someone that educates themselves and stays informed on LGBTQ issues, keep reading, listening and watching.<\/p>\n How did you become an ally?<\/strong><\/p>\n Through my work supporting estranged students, some students have sadly been disowned because of their sexuality or gender choice. It can be painful to find yourself in the position where a relationship with close family members is untenable. University can also be the beginning of one\u2019s self-acceptance. \u00a0University can became your safe space to be authentically you.<\/p>\n What does Pride mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n To be able to live openly and freely as your authentic self and the need to understand the legacy of protest and political struggle that made it safe to do so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maddie - Disability Adviser<\/strong><\/p>\n First of all, can you tell us how you are and your role within the university.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hi, I\u2019m Maddie (she\/her) and I am a Disability Adviser here at the University. As a Disability Adviser, I meet with students to discuss and recommend support for their studies such as exam arrangements, assistive\u00a0technology\u00a0or one-to-one study support.<\/p>\n What does it mean to you to be and LGBTQ+ ally?<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, allyship is supporting, advocating for, and celebrating LGBTQ+ students. It\u2019s about recognising and addressing challenges and discrimination that can be faced by the community as well as celebrating the LGBTQ+ individuals.<\/p>\n It also is an opportunity to reflect and work to promote LGBTQ+ representation, ensuring that I can provide a space where LGBTQ+ students feel welcomed an accepted.<\/p>\n Overall allyship for me is standing in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ folks and working on active inclusion.<\/p>\n How did you become an ally?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have many friends who are part of the LGBTQ+ community and I have found it very helpful to have open conversations with them to learn more and reflect on my own thoughts and what else I can do to be a good ally. I think the most important part of becoming\/being an ally is about listening to people\u2019s experiences, supporting their wellbeing, and providing a safe space to talk and be their authentic selves.<\/p>\n What does Pride mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Progress \u2013 the progress that\u2019s been made and the progress that needs to be made.<\/p>\n Celebration \u2013 celebrating individuals, love and being your authentic self.<\/p>\n Visibility<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What does being an ally mean to you? Let us know in the comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being an ally is often something we hear as part of Pride Month and in the context of supporting the LGBTQ+ community. An ally is someone who stands up for, supports and encourages the people around them. As part of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1296,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","tag-wellbeing"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2024\/06\/new-pride-flag-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4PsN-9D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/be-well\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2024\/06\/Maddie-300x300.jpg\")
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