
{"id":3039,"date":"2019-06-28T07:48:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T07:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/why-lgbtstem-day-matters-to-me\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:32:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:32:57","slug":"why-lgbtstem-day-matters-to-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/why-lgbtstem-day-matters-to-me","title":{"rendered":"Why LGBTSTEM Day matters to me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Today is the first International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Usually, as a certified grumpy bisexual, I can be quite cynical that these things won\u2019t be enough \u2014 that someone will reluctantly promote the day, consider it sufficient appeasement, and then go right back to complaining about how gay people just want to shove their lifestyle down everyone\u2019s throats (As a certified grumpy bisexual, I\u2019m also used to companies painting everything in rainbow colours for one month and then expecting it to somehow compensate for their behaviour in the next eleven. It never does.).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Somehow, this feels different. Maybe it\u2019s unfounded optimism, me wanting\u00a0<i>something<\/i>\u00a0good to happen after a few years of absolute chaos, and the rise of the far right. Maybe the concerted effort of activists and advocates is becoming visible after years and years of work. Thanks to everyone who\u00a0<i>has<\/i>\u00a0worked on making #LGBTSTEMDay happen, I\u2019m excited to see what it brings. I\u2019m even more excited that big organisations like ESA have gotten on board, because they want to be seen making an effort.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">At the same time, I always get a little knot of worry in my stomach. We have made great strides in combatting homophobia and transphobia, but some people now think that everything must be fine. And if everything\u2019s fine, they wonder, why are LGBTQ+ people still talking about homophobia and transphobia? Aren\u2019t they just being uppity and looking for problems where none exist? Why do we need to have a day for LGBTQ+ people in STEM at all? Why does it matter?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">The truth is, everything\u2019s not fine. Things have not been fine for a long time. Sometimes they are not fine in extremely obvious ways, like transgender people being shot and stabbed. Sometimes they are not fine in far more subtle ways, like feeling forced to stay quiet about your sexuality or gender identity for fear of being deemed \u201cunprofessional\u201d or \u201ctoo political.\u201d If we want things to be fine \u2014 and I do \u2014 we have to realise that they\u2019re not fine right now and won\u2019t be fine until we fix them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I\u2019m going to talk about my experiences, why #LGBTSTEMDay matters to me, and what we can do to support LGBTQ+ people in STEM and STEM-adjacent fields.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>About me:<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Queering the beach by doing silly poses.\" class=\"responsive\" data-file_info=\"%7B%22fid%22:%228919%22,%22view_mode%22:%22default%22,%22fields%22:%7B%22format%22:%22default%22,%22field_file_image_alt_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Queering%20the%20beach%20by%20doing%20silly%20poses.%22,%22field_file_image_title_text%5Bund%5D%5B0%5D%5Bvalue%5D%22:%22Queering%20the%20beach%20by%20doing%20silly%20poses.%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Btextfield%5D%22:%22%22,%22field_image_tags%5Bund%5D%5Bvalue_field%5D%22:%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%5C%22%22%7D,%22type%22:%22media%22%7D\" src=\"http:\/\/insights.cactusglobal.com\/sites\/default\/files\/Osnat%20Katz.jpg\" style=\"\" title=\"Queering the beach by doing silly poses.\" \/><br \/><em><strong>Queering the beach by doing silly poses. Credit: Lisa Beckmann<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I am not an expert on LGBTQ+ issues. I am only one person and I happen to be bisexual, but I hope some of this rambling gives you an insight into the experiences of one queer person in STEM.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">For most of my life I\u2019ve been comparatively lucky. At 14, I realised I was attracted to the girls in my class as well as the boys. I wasn\u2019t alarmed or upset by this \u2014 I recognised it as bisexuality and moved on with my life. From my perspective, it felt completely normal and uncontroversial. 8 years later it still does.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">After a couple of disastrous experiences at school, I kept it to myself \u2014 I didn\u2019t feel comfortable talking about it with people who would swoop down and try to figure out if I was a \u201creal\u201d bisexual or not, giving me hell if they thought I was \u201cfake.\u201d I think I ended up crying in the locker room more than a few times because of biphobia. My bisexuality has never been an issue to me, but it seems to be an issue to more than a few people.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I did OK in my A-Levels and moved from the stifling atmosphere of north London to Manchester, a comparatively queer-friendly city. I joined the LGBTQ+ society and an amateur theatre group, where I slowly made friends who accepted me for who I am. At university, I felt much less pressure to \u201cact gay,\u201d perhaps because we\u2019d all grown up, and perhaps because in a more queer-friendly city people feel that they don\u2019t have to fit a certain image. Meanwhile, I studied hard for my physics degree and leapt on any outreach opportunity I could find.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">If these things seem disconnected, it\u2019s because they absolutely are. I don\u2019t feel that my sexuality has any bearing on my ability or desire to communicate science. It\u2019s an important part of me, but it\u2019s not something that impacts other people very much.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">I\u2019m now volunteering and trying to make this science writing thing pay the bills. I\u2019m very lucky to have a supportive community around me, but there are definitely times when I feel like I can\u2019t talk freely about being bisexual in the same way that a straight person can talk freely about their experience. That\u2019s not OK at all.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">As a science writer rather than an academic, I also feel pigeonholed at times. I worry that if I\u2019m open about my bisexuality, I\u2019ll be pigeonholed as someone who writes solely about identity (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but also not something I\u2019m interested in), rather than as a person who writes about science and happens to be bisexual. Again, this is not OK \u2014 there is room in this world to be and do more than one thing at a time!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">Let me reiterate that I have been extremely lucky. Yes, I have faced prejudice, but so many other people have had things so much worse.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>It might not be all sunshine, but there are still rainbows<\/b><br \/>The issues I\u2019ve faced aren\u2019t unique to me \u2014 they\u2019re shared by many other LGBTQ+ people in STEM. In fact, there are many more issues that can affect LGBTQ+ people working in STEM, from overt verbal harassment to having people try to block your election to a position out of transphobia. It\u2019s no wonder that even when the number of LGBTQ+ people belonging to a professional body is proportional to the LGBTQ+ population in general \u2014 and this is by no means guaranteed \u2014 we suffer targeted harassment, report feeling uncomfortable, and are more likely to drop out of STEM degrees.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\">The numbers might be discouraging, but that hasn\u2019t stopped LGBTQ+ people around the world from falling in love with STEM subjects and changing the world. Showing that people like us can do science won\u2019t solve the mess of homophobia and transphobia in STEM overnight, but it will help to make LGBTQ+ people more visible and accepted by a wider community. Honestly, I\u2019m glad that people are taking #LGBTSTEMDay as a chance to celebrate. Our stories have value beyond being misery-lit.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>How to help<\/b><br \/>Congratulations! You\u2019ve made it through the last 1000 words of rambling. Along the way, you\u2019ve learned that things are definitely not fine and that increasing the visibility of LGBTQ+ people in STEM can help. The question is how.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Contribute<\/b>: Share stories about yourself or the LGBTQ+ people who inspire you, using the #LGBTSTEMDay hashtag!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Listen<\/b>: It\u2019s also a great time to learn about the cool things other people have been doing. There is a lot, but I found David Smith\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/professor_dave\/status\/1012316273332707328\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\">thread of LGBT STEM heroes<\/a>\u00a0incredibly interesting.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin:0cm 0cm 10pt\"><span style=\"font-size:11pt\"><span style=\"line-height:115%\"><span style=\"font-family:Calibri,sans-serif\"><b>Also listen to people generally<\/b>: This is supposed to be something of an occasion. Not everyone will feel up to that today. This is OK and does not make you worse at being queer, or mean that you\u2019re letting the side down. Take care of yourself and your friends \u2014 because you matter and that is why today matters.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i>Osnat Katz (<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/astrosnat\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\"><b><i>@<\/i><\/b><i>astrosnat<\/i><\/a><i>) is a science writer and editor, and is currently doing an MSc in Science Communication. This story was published on July 4, 2018, on Osnat\u2019s <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/osnatkatz.com\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\"><i>blog<\/i><\/a><i> (available <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/osnatkatz.com\/2018\/07\/04\/why-lgbtstemday-matters\/\" style=\"color:blue; text-decoration:underline\"><i>here<\/i><\/a><i>), and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is the first International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Usually, as a certified grumpy bisexual, I can be quite cynical that these things won\u2019t be enough \u2014 that someone will reluctantly promote the day, consider it sufficient appeasement, and then go right back to complaining about how gay people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":955,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2673,2668,2454],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-a-day-in-the-life","tag-motivational-stories","tag-researcher-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why LGBTSTEM Day matters to me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Osnat Katz is a science writer and editor, and is currently doing an MSc in Science Communication. 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