by Victoria Cook, BBC
An annual event aimed at giving LGBTQ+ students networking opportunities is set to end after 21 years in London due to a drop in corporate sponsorship.
National Student Pride, a non-profit organisation created in 2005, said its income had reduced by about two-thirds in the last two years, “largely due to widespread cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) budgets” by sponsors.
It said other sponsors had to be dropped after it introduced an “ethical sponsorship” policy, external last year, following some LGBTQ+ groups’ protests against sponsors’ links to Israel and the fossil fuel industry.
In 2024, the event had 24 sponsors, this year there are only eight.
One of the original founders and a current trustee, Tom Guy, said the group was established as a “direct response” to a “homophobic and deeply divisive” talk at Oxford Brookes University which was hosted by its Christian Union.
“We chose to respond by creating something constructive.
“Our very first event intentionally centred on a welcoming and inclusive panel, which included both a vicar and a rabbi, to show that faith, identity and LGBTQ+ lives do not have to be in conflict.”