February has been another busy month for our FTO’s here at the Student Union and here is a recap of everything they got up to in February!
LGBTQ+ History Month
The biggest event of the month was by far the LGBTQ+ History Month. LGBTQ+ History Month runs throughout the entirety of February each year and has done since its establishment in 2004. The purpose of LGBTQ+ History Month is to raise awareness of the LBTQ+ community’s history and to promote equality.
Creating a strong sense of community amongst students here at the Student Union is a core focus of ours, and this starts by promoting equality and ensuring, amongst many things, that students are not mistreated based on their sexuality. In celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month the FTO’s put on some amazing events last month.
We hosted our ‘Queer Quiz’ which was an amazing event which helped raise money for LGBT Health and Wellbeing. LGBT Health are a wonderful charity who look to “improve the physical, social, and mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ adults (16+) in Scotland through responsive support services, a social programme for our community to connect with each other and supporting mainstream services to be more inclusive”. The money raised at our ‘Queer Quiz’ will be going to a great cause which will help support a lot of people within the LGBTQ+ community.
We also hosted a wonderful evening in Zero’s joined by our friends from Kabarat Kweer. This event has never disappointed in the past and its safe to say they didn’t disappoint this time around. The night was full of wonderful drag performances accompanied by some awesome live music, and its certainly an event we are keen to provide students with again in the future.
The standout event from our LGBTQ+ History Month celebrations was by far the Gay Agenda event. Not only did this event include Heriot-Watt students, but it also included students from Edinburgh University, Edinburgh College, Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University. It was great to see a collective of students from different universities and colleges in Edinburgh coming together in unison to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month. The event sold around 250 tickets and raised £705.79 which will go toward the LGBT Health and Wellbeing charity. Huge thanks to everyone who helped organise the event, and an ever bigger thanks to everyone who came and made it such a memorable event, not only for Heriot-Watt students but rather for the LGBTQ+ student population in Edinburgh.
Community Meal – Chinese New Year
In February the FTO’s also helped organise and run another hugely popular Community Meal event. This month’s community meal was inspired by the Chinese New Year celebrations and similarly to many of our other community meal events, the turnout was exceptional. We were able to provide another 100 free lunches to students across campus and we hope to offer many more Community Meal events in the future. So, for those of you who maybe didn’t manage to get a free meal this time around, keep an eye out for future community meal announcements and make sure to be ahead of the competition!
Midweek Mixer Events
Our FTO’s helped organise and launch the Midweek Mixer events which were introduced for the first time in February. These events are a great way to unwind from university work, meet and talk with some new people, and most importantly, to just have fun! We hope to keep providing these events in the future, so please consider checking out upcoming events and possibly coming along! We are sure you’ll have a great time!