MRSpride Show Up 2022: a new platform for LGBTQ+ insights, experiences and perspectives
27 April 2022

Michael Brown, co-chair of MRSpride, has been thinking about the power of presence lately. Here he writes about speaking up, being informed and standing up for what is right.

The term ‘to show up’ has felt quite prominent in culture for some time now, driven perhaps by American business psychology. The term has come to mean applying yourself with conviction, say at work for example, or to support a cause or community.

I think the term is taking on new dimensions though, as we stride further into a world that more closely resembles the one we knew pre-pandemic, but one that is somehow changed.

After so long not being able to ‘show up’ for each other, due to isolation and the weary introspection of the pandemic, this is a time of reconnection and new possibilities (a time that has brought its own adjustment challenges, in my experience).

There have been many takes, for example, on how many days a week we should be ‘showing up’ in the office in the new hybrid working world. Regressive leaders feel that colleagues should be physically present at their desks from Monday to Friday.

Elsewhere, in the context of the many crucial social causes that have gained more visibility since life P.C. (pre-Covid), ‘showing up’ means speaking up, being informed and standing up for what is right.

Fortunately, issues like racism and sustainability have gained much greater prominence over the last two years, due to the groundswell of awareness and advocacy we have seen around the Black Lives Matter movement and the protection of the environment. However, while there is progress in some areas, transphobia has worsened terribly, driven by divisive public figures, and indeed the Government. The need to ‘show up’ for trans people has never been more acute.

On Thursday 15 September, MRSpride will be hosting our first ever LGBTQ+ research conference, which will have a hybrid format and will be free to access to all. At UM, where I am Managing Partner for Insight, Data Solutions & Marketing, we are proud to host this important event at our new office in Blackfriars, The Bailey.

We are currently actively seeking research and voices to highlight from across the academic, arts, charity, data and insight worlds – and beyond. If you’ve been involved in a project that has uncovered new aspects to LGBTQ+ culture and experiences today, we’d love to hear from you.  

We are especially keen to hear from lesser heard parts of the community, such as intersex people, transgender and non-binary people, minority ethnic heritage people and people with disabilities.

Whether virtually, or in person at The Bailey, we hope to welcome many LGBTQ+ people and allies who wish to better understand the culture and lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people today (truly focusing on all parts of the community).

MRSpride has proudly given a platform previously to content about chemsex addiction, HIV attitudes, and mental health, and we organised a Trans Insight Summit in partnership with Mermaids, the first of its kind. We are committed to helping to build understanding of some of the more under-researched and

There is a further dimension to ‘showing up’ as a community, which is the social aspect, and – dare I say it – having fun! After a couple of years of isolation, and the general trauma of Covid’s consequences, safe offline spaces for queer and trans people, and allies, are more special and needed than ever. So, Show Up will be a chance to catch up with old friends, and make new friends, over drinks.

Above all, we hope to see many people ‘show up’ in the most pressing sense of the term, in solidarity, and that we come together to learn and support parts of the LGBTQ+ community who need it.

It falls onto our community, and our allies, to act to protect and defend the parts of the LGBTQ+ community who are vulnerable, and we can only do that by understanding the challenges and realities that those communities face today.

Submit your ideas for the MRSpride conference by the end of June via networking@mrs.org.uk.

Listen to the latest OUTsights podcast here.