UK: Charity praises Imperial College London for commitment to trans issues
The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) has praised Imperial College London for the university’s work in combating discrimination and prejudice against the trans community, in its first endorsement of a British university.
GIRES is a charity dedicated to improving the lives of people in the trans community by generating supportive attitudes in society. It is working with Imperial to deliver trans-awareness training, which is open to all members of the College, and to provide best practice guidance.
Last week, current GIRES chair Celia Macleod and co-founder Terry Reed spoke at Imperial’s annual Diversity Lecture about transitioning, in a lecture entitled ‘Gender variance from Dark Ages to Enlightenment’.
Bernard Reed OBE, co-founder of GIRES, said of the endorsement: “We are delighted that Imperial has made a public commitment to end prejudice and discrimination against trans people and to improve the support it offers to trans members of its community.
“As the first university to make public its partnership with GIRES, we hope that Imperial will set an important example to the rest of the Higher Education sector about the importance of embracing and celebrating diversity.”
Provost of Imperial, Professor James Stirling, praised the university’s “great strides in championing Equality and Diversity in recent years”, but said that educational institutions “need to do more”.
He added: “By working with [GIRES] to improve the support we offer to our trans colleagues, Imperial is striving towards a more supportive and tolerant environment where diversity is embraced – to the benefit of all within our community.”
Bernard and Terry Reed, who in 2010 received OBEs from the Queen, set up the charity in 1997 after helping their trans daughter to win a landmark sex discrimination case. Imperial College London is the charity’s 59th corporate member.
