Celebrating LGBT History Month 2019

Royal Academy of Engineering celebrates LGBT History Month 2019

February provides an opportunity to highlight lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) engineers and current and historic barriers to inclusion. It is a chance to present positive examples and tools that can help to develop a more inclusive culture within engineering for LGBT engineers.

In the UK, LGBT history month is celebrated annually in February to coincide with abolition of section 28 of the local government act in 2003 that made it illegal to ‘promote homosexuality’ in education.

According to research conducted by the Academy:

• LGB* engineers are less likely to say ‘I can be open about my sexual orientation’ - 55% of lesbian engineers, 48% of gay engineers and 53% of bisexual engineers compared to 90% of heterosexual engineers
• 34% of LGB engineers belong to employee networks compared to 10% of heterosexual engineers
• Lesbian engineers reported more isolation, fewer career opportunities and received less respect than their gay, bisexual and heterosexual counterparts

The Academy, working with InterEngineering (IE), the national network of LGBT engineers, will share information during February 2019 through a social media campaign. This will be shared on Twitter at @RAEngNews, using the hashtags #EngDiversity and #LGBTHM2019. The campaign will cover the following areas: