The LGBTQ+ STEM Blog is a place for writing around any topic touching the LGBTQ+ community, and science, technology, engineering and maths. Five years ago, we helped break open the visibility of LGBTQ+ students, professionals and academics in STEM with the STEMinar. Now we want this blog to be a platform for the new frontiers that are faced by our community, including diversity within the LGBTQ+ community in terms of race, gender, disability, age and social class, continuing the fight for the rights of trans, nonbinary and gender diverse people, personal and professional experiences of LGBTQ+ colleagues in their careers in various corners of STEM. We would also want this to be a posterboard which builds community, resilience and collaboration between the LGBTQ+ communities in science, technology, engineering and maths.
The topic can be anything – personal reflections, resources, experiences, stories – and includes the broadest definitions of STEM both in terms of the authors (academic, non-academic, industry, practitioner, undergraduate, professional, technician) and subjects (science, technology, engineering, and maths broadly defined, and including science & technology studies). If you’re not sure, just get in touch, and chances are we’ll say “yes!”. We can also publish posts anonymously (we do need to know who you are, though that won’t be public).
If you’re interested in contributing, you can send any submissions as editable document (we can work with pretty much any format). All contributions should follow our Code of Practice:
- We welcome contributions which make a positive impact on the LGBTQ+ community and encourage kindness as a guiding principle for delivering a positive message.
- Refrain using language or information which may affect others’ dignity or well-being, out anybody or reveal personal circumstances without consent.
- Avoid insults directed at individuals or groups, diminishing, discriminatory, negative or exclusionary comments about any physical attributes or identity, including sexual orientation or gender identity.
- If photography or imagery are included, ensure that they are appropriate for generalist audiences, creates no harm to any individuals. You must also either hold the rights to publish those images or have the capacity to publish it under CC-BY license.
- Citations are not strictly policed in the blog, however clearly referencing the original ideas or material which do not belong to you via footnotes, hyperlinks or a bibliography is encouraged where appropriate.
Submissions should be no more than 800-1000 words, though longer pieces could be serialized over several posts. They can be emailed to us, and we’ll work with you to give it a quick polish.
LGBTQ+ STEM 