PROF RIORDAN’S EMAIL TO COLLEAGUES

I hope you will forgive me if I conclude on something of a personal note this month.

As I was browsing Blas towards the end of September, an item caught my eye saying that 23 September had been ‘Bi Visibility Day’, on which we raised our Bi Pride flag ‘to show support for bisexual staff and students’.

The item came as something of a surprise to me because I didn’t realize there was such a day, or that we had such a flag, or that we had raised it above Main Building.

This all seemed rather a pity because I count myself in that category and I wondered how this could all have passed me by. Rather obviously, it was probably because people didn’t know I would identify as bi and so I thought – if this is about visibility – that it might help if they did.

I honestly don’t know if it makes any difference, but I do feel that if there is a chance that any of our students or colleagues might feel more supported by my mentioning this, then it’s worth doing.

The Blas article includes a link to an enlightening blog entry by our Bi Champion, Jessie Atkinson (introduced by our excellent Chair of Enfys, the Cardiff University LGBT+ staff network, Karen Cooke).

I certainly recognized pretty much all of what Jessie writes there about the various issues one faces, but I think it would make interesting reading even if you’re not directly affected.