SKA Pride

SKAO staff at the Manchester Pride Parade in August.

Credit: Matthew Lilley

SKAO staff got together on a recent weekend to see the Manchester Pride Parade, one of the biggest events in the city’s calendar.

Backed by SKAO’s Recreational Committee and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, the outing was an opportunity to show support for LGBT+ equality, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields where there is still a lack of awareness and inclusion towards LGBT+ colleagues.

The report titled "Exploring the Workplace for LGBT+ Physical Scientists" is available on the Royal Astronomical Society website here: https://ras.ac.uk/education-and-careers/exploring-workplace-lgbt-physical-scientists.

Some 300,000 people came together to watch the parade, which this year was on the theme of Deep Space Pride: A Future World of Equality. With diversity a core value of the SKA and our eyes set on the next generation with the SKA operating for the next 50 years, this was a perfect event to attend, blessed by the hottest summer bank holiday weekend in the UK on record! There’s already talk of taking part in the parade in the future…