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It’s Pride Month. Rather than post a flag and leave it there, we thought we would point you towards some free learning that is worth the few minutes it takes.
The Open University’s OpenLearn platform has a small set of free, short resources on LGBTQ+ allyship and history. They are open to anyone, no sign-up needed, and well put together.
Free courses from OpenLearn
How To Be A Better LGBTQI+ Ally
A 20-minute interactive built around real stories from LGBTQI+ young people. It tests how you would respond in practice rather than just describing allyship.
Content warning: depicts mistreatment
How to be a great trans ally
A short interactive on what trans allyship looks like in practice, starting from the sensible point that it looks different for different people.
Timeline: LGBTQ History
Snapshots from across LGBTQ history, useful if you want the broad picture rather than a single anniversary.
Key historic LGBTQI+ figures
A look at significant LGBTQI+ figures, with a focus on Black and minority ethnic figures too often left out of the standard accounts.
Closer to our own field
There is a reason this sits comfortably on a dementia research site. LGBTQ+ people remain an under-researched and frequently overlooked group in dementia, both in care and in the evidence base. Around 5 to 7% of the population is LGBT, yet many are not out within dementia services, and the specific barriers they face, from reminiscence work that assumes a heterosexual life history to the risk of being inadvertently outed as cognition changes, rarely make it into mainstream research questions.
Alzheimer’s Society: LGBTQ+ and dementia
Practical guidance and lived experience accounts on supporting LGBTQ+ people with dementia, informed by their LGBTQ+ Dementia Advisory Group. A good orientation if this is newer ground for your work.
Pride in STEM
For those of us who are LGBTQ+ in research, or who want to back colleagues who are. A UK charity supporting LGBTQ+ people across science, founded by researchers, and the group behind the International Day of LGBTQ+ People in STEM.
Free resources via The Open University’s OpenLearn, Alzheimer’s Society, and Pride in STEM. All links open in a new tab.
NIHR
who gets to produce knowledge and whose voices deserve to be heard.
At a time when many marginalized communities are facing renewed political hostility, I believe it is more important than ever to affirm that people living with dementia are not merely subjects of research but citizens, experts by experience, and agents of change.
Whether you are a researcher, practitioner, student, policy-maker, family member, person living with dementia, or ally, I hope you will join us for what promises to be a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion.
Registration and event details are available here:
https://communities.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/c/events/research-showcase-daithi-clayton-queer-minds-matter-dementia-identity-and-the-politics-of-being-seen
Please feel free to share this invitation widely with your networks.
Happy Pride.
In solidarity,
Daithi, they/them
Flemish Dementia Working Group
Lived Experience Researcher, LGBTQIAP2S+ Advocate, and Person Living with Dementia