Stories of Pride in Higher Education: Andrew Struan
I came out as gay when I was 15 and in high school. I knew nobody else who was out and felt very, very alone. My school was small and, although my friends were great, I didn’t know anyone else in my situation. I don’t think I’d ever heard of the concept of Pride.
I came to Glasgow as a 17 year old; I was the only person from my year at school to go to Glasgow and I arrived on the first day of semester knowing nobody. I was terrified.
This very quickly changed. I found that I had at Glasgow a community that was mine and one to which I could belong. I made friends that are with me *mumble high number mumble* years/decades later. I became involved in my subject societies and lots of stuff happening across the College; I found my place. This stayed true all through my undergraduate, my Masters and my PhD.
I then moved to the USA for work as a postdoctoral research fellow. The situation in the USA – I was in Virginia in the South – was very different, and I could have been fired for being gay. (This has since thankfully changed in Virginia; the Virginia Values Act of 2020 protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. It was the first Act of its kind in the South in the USA.) I didn’t hide who I was at work, but I also just didn’t talk about it openly with my colleagues. My personal life became very personal and very private, and I didn’t share details of any parts of my life at work. I was lucky to have formed a very good group of friends outside of work but, without this, I wouldn’t have been able to be fully open and be myself anywhere. I absolutely loved living in the USA, but there was always a part of me worried about being somehow caught out.
It was as a result of this that I decided to attend my first ever Pride event. I went to Pride in Washington, D.C. It was amazing: the Mayor of D.C. was in the parade and there was so much joy, colour, happiness and openness. The Pride march was filled with people shouting about their rights, their freedoms, their lives, and what they were owed. I was so energised by their enthusiasm and passion that I started volunteering for the Equality and Human Rights Commission that campaigned for equal marriage in the USA.
I had never before realised the importance of being involved in this way. I had taken for granted the freedoms afforded to me at Glasgow and in the UK. I admit this now with some regret as I’m aware of the privilege I had and the privilege I have once again from being in Glasgow.
For me, being gay at work is part of who I am and part of my identity. I have never hidden who I am at Glasgow, and this means so much to me. My friends, my colleagues, my team all know about some of my personal life – usually because I talk about my partner – and I have never come across any hostility or resentment from anyone at Glasgow.
As I type this, I realise the amazing luck and good favour I have had in being able to say that the place I work accepts me for who I am. For me, Glasgow has been an unending source of positivity, openness, inclusiveness and – most of the time – not-at-all-botheredness when it comes to my orientation. I realise that, for so, so many, this is not the case, and that’s why Pride is such an important part of the year for us all.
I remain committed to being out and being proud, and to making Glasgow as safe and welcoming a place for all LGBTQ+ people as possible. I see in my other out LGBTQ+ colleagues the same commitment to sharing who we are and being proud to be LGBTQ+.
Written by Dr Andrew Struan, Writing and Study Skills Co-ordinator