LGBTQ+ History Month is now in its 18th year, and it’s still as important as ever. Many like to take comfort in the notion that we’ve moved beyond the days where LGBTQ+ people were treated as a lower class, but sadly this isn’t true. Members of our community still face immense challenges all across the globe. 

My name is Neo Politan Stansby, and I am your LGBTQ+ Officer at Falmouth University. I have gone through quite a lot being a transgendered person in the UK. Access to healthcare in the UK is quite complicated and very sparse unless if you can go private. Wait times on the NHS are exceedingly long and we’ve had to fight for our rights. One thing we are very strong at as a community is to unite and make change for the better.

So far, this year has been interesting for me. I have come to terms with accepting myself as being polyamorous, meaning that I can hold onto multiple romantic relationships at once. It’s something that I buried deep within me for over half a decade. Coming to accept it has been extremely challenging. For me, trying to learn and work around my feelings and thoughts, and socially, trying to explain and educate to the best of my ability what it means to be polyamorous, to me at least.

It is true that we have come a long way, but history is closer than we think it to be. Only 20 years have passed since it became legal for schools to even teach about homosexuality in a positive context. In the university, the SU and I are still hard at work to make sure that deadnaming is an issue of the past, and I will continue to chase it until it is an issue of the past.

As your LGBTQ+ Officer, I’d like to thank the SU for the support and opportunity to talk about the importance of this month with our student community. I also look forward to many other events throughout the rest of this academic year with the Liberation Committee and SU Pride Society, who are always open to new members, whether you’re already comfortable and confident in your LGBTQ+ identity or if you’re just making your first steps into discovering a part of yourself.

Neo Stansby,

SU LGBTQ+ Officer

To find out more about what's happening this month, visit our LGBTQ+ History Month hub!