Celebrating Pride
At the College, we celebrate Pride Month to commemorate and celebrate LGBTQ+ voices, activism and to show our support of LGBTQ+ rights.
Pride Month is about teaching tolerance, education in pride history and continuing to move equality forwards, something that we at the College continue to strive to do.
Pride 2025
The Rainbow Special Interest Group are holding an in-person event on 13 June at the College’s London headquarters, called ‘Marginalisation to Inclusion: developing guidance for clinicians on working with LGBTIQ+ patients’.
Professor Helen Killaspy, who is giving a keynote speech titled ‘The mental health of people from sexual and gender minorities’, has made this special video explaining what delegates can expect:
As well as Professor Killaspy’s great talk, Professor Irvin Nazareth is speaking about the history of marginalisation of people from sexual minorities, and Dr Stan Papoulias and Mx River are discussing how lived experience and co-production can inform transgender care.
Other activities to celebrate Pride
As well as the Rainbow SIG Conference, we will be:
- celebrating Pride at RCPsych International Congress
- publishing guest blog posts, including from our departing Rainbow SIG Chair, Dr Pavan Joshi who will share his reflections
- publishing a podcast with Dr Bradley Hillier exploring the problems surrounding chemsex and associated mental health conditions and how this is affecting gay men and the wider LGBTQ+ community.
Please look out for these, share among your networks, and join in our Pride celebrations!
Previous Pride events
Our focus for Pride 2024 was the importance of inclusive leadership and celebrating role models.
We reflected on individual journeys, progress and hope for the future, and reminded people of the College's LGBTQ+ commitments that are aimed at making workplaces more LGBTQ+ friendly. We also held a special Pride webinar for College staff.
In the video below, RCPsych member Helen Killaspy spoke about the importance of role models.
You can also read former President Professor Dinesh Bhugra's reflection on the painting of his presidential portrait. This was part of a project to better understand our portraits by speaking to the sitters and the artists.
PrideCast: In conversation with Dr Chris Walsh
In this podcast to celebrate Pride 2023 we spoke to Dr Chris Walsh, Chair of the College's Psychiatric Trainees Committee (now the Psychiatric Resident Doctors' Committee) to discuss his journey from Liverpool to Psychiatry, his creative background, and his advice to LGBTQ+ folks looking to choose psychiatry as a career.