To celebrate Black History Month ’21, The University of Edinburgh Staff Pride Network invited a panel of speakers from around the world to discuss their experiences with being Black in the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ experience is vastly different in other countries, and in many places coming out as any queer identity is still taboo, or even illegal.

In particular, BAME communities can still experience much of the stigma and oppression that white or Western LGBTQ+ folks can sometimes see as a thing of the past. Despite this, so much of modern queer culture stems from the queer expression of Black and PoC communities – from the clothes we wear, to the music we listen to, to the way we speak. In this seminar the aim was to share some of these experiences of coming out, finding community, and expressing LGBTQ+ identities as Black individuals in a range of global contexts, to highlight the intersectional joys and struggles the Black LGBTQ+ community has faced and continues to face.

SPEAKERS

Char

Char (also known by her art name Oillustration) is an artist and a dreamer. She is a Black woman who draws Black women and women of colour. This art shows the full range of our emotions, our experiences and our lives. She hails from the Caribbean and love talking about tacos, enjoy fighting for what’s right and supporting my LGBTQIA+ community.

Char’s website: https://www.oillustration.shop/

Paulmarq Francois

Paulmarq Francois (also known as “Archangel Paulmarq”) is the owner and operator of PMQ Spiritworks, where he works as a channel, healer, teacher and mentor for others on their spiritual journeys. Paulmarq has studied divination for many years, specializing in Oracle Cards and Dowsing, and is a Reiki Master in the Usui tradition. He is 2 Spirit, and welcomes the use of any pronouns. He is part Blackfoot and Cherokee, and his spiritual gifts are connected to his indigenous ancestry. Paulmarq lives in Arlington, TX in the unseated lands of the Comanche.

Billie Bryan

Billie Bryan, affectionately known as ‘Bee’ is an ethical graphic designer, web developer, artist, musician, activist and vegan. Having worked with or volunteered for animal advocacy groups, her clients consist largely of like-minded eco-conscious or vegan non-profits and solopreneurs. She is also a pansexual, polyamorous, transgender woman advocating for the representation and visibility of her LGBTQIA+ community. Born and raised in the Cayman Islands, Billie hopes to radically reshape the prevalent conservative mindset of her country and create a bold and visible community for the LGBTQIA+ people of the Caribbean and Latin America through the work of Colours Caribbean, the nation’s first LGBQIA+ non-profit organisation that she founded in 2018. When she’s not writing HTML and pushing pixels, Billie enjoys running, snorkelling, video games, fantasy novels, listening to EDM and jazz or curling up on the couch for the night with a good horror film.

Bee’s website: https://colourscaribbean.com/

Click here to view Black LGBTQ+ Lives around the world directly on Media Hopper Create
 

 

 

 

Header Image: Title screen of video