{"id":2453,"date":"2024-06-28T10:52:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T09:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2453"},"modified":"2024-06-28T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T10:25:50","slug":"alumni-pride-marias-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/alumni-pride-marias-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Pride: Maria’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Pride month, we\u2019re sharing the stories and celebrating achievements of our queer alumni. Here, we speak to Commercial Music Performance alumna, Maria Jula (She\/Her), about pink washing, coming out at Westminster and her role as co-chair of the Q+ network. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realised I was gay pretty much 10 days after coming to the University.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria is from Romania, a place where \u2018traditional\u2019 ideas of love are still very much the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack home, even though I had those ideas and tendencies from when I was young, I had to suppress them and do what everybody else was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never would have thought I could come out to my family.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, things are very different. As well as working in the Mentoring Team at the University of Westminster, Maria is a qualified Personal Trainer and soon-to-be professional Nutritionist. But on the day we\u2019re speaking, she is attending the University of Westminster\u2019s fourth annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) conference in her other capacity: as a co-chair of Westminster\u2019s Q+ Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Q+ Network is a group which advocates for equity, and promotes diversity and inclusivity for colleagues at Westminster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really has two sides,\u201d explains Maria. \u201cOne is about having a community and a place for LGBTQ+ staff members to connect. Especially, recognising that for some colleagues, this might be their only safe space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other is about advocating for change. So from things like gender neutral toilets on every campus to making sure pronouns are spelled correctly, and that gendered language is appropriate on our forms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to have a safe and supportive environment to be your authentic self is an important issue for Maria. It was a difficulty she faced herself before coming to university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI come from Romania, a country where LGBTQ+ rights are not recognised in any kind of way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was even a referendum to change the constitution to reflect the fact that a marriage is between a man and woman, even though that is already in the law. But laws are easier to change than the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately the proposed change to prohibit same-sex marriage didn\u2019t happen, but these prevailing attitudes meant Maria felt she: \u201ccouldn\u2019t be myself at home\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming (out) to Westminster<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying at Westminster gave Maria the freedom to explore who she was and fully embrace it for the first time \u2013 it\u2019s really where her LGBTQ+ story begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The support from her personal tutor, the University\u2019s counselling services, the LGBTQ+ society and wider community helped Maria as she stepped out of her comfort zone and explored who she was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was just so nice having the support to feel like it\u2019s normal and it\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even feel the need to necessarily say anything to my family because I was living my authentic life 100% and being a lesbian in the UK, a lesbian at work, when I was studying and to my friends. That was enough for me at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe University really helped me step into myself and remove a lot of the shame that was associated with just being different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now through the Q+ network, Maria is channelling her experiences into supporting the queer community \u2013 at the University and beyond. She has represented the University at events as co-chair, including the London Mayor\u2019s LGBTQ+ reception evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing part of the Q+ network means I get to sit at tables with big decision makers, to get up and speak with people about what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problematic pink washing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while LGBTQ+ campaigning is \u201cgoing in the right direction by pushing for change\u201d, these discussions alone are not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGovernment needs to be offering more than conversations. Every conversation needs have an action behind it. It\u2019s finding the balance where representation is followed by action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitially we were just happy to see the rainbow flag on everything and happy to be seen. But lately, people are questioning: where is that coming from? Is there actual work behind that? Or is it just: \u2018I\u2019m going to use this rainbow flag so I can sell my product\u2019?  So there\u2019s a big debate which makes things even harder sometimes, even within the community, to come an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With these complexities, especially around sensitive and intricate issues, Maria recognises the importance of representation. This year, the Q+ network has grown to include four committee members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get more of a community too, allowing the space to have talks about rights but still keep a space for celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to listen to other people and that\u2019s why having a community is really important. Because everybody\u2019s got their own strengths and we want to listen to as many people as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am humbled sometimes by members, but I\u2019m open to listening and learning. It\u2019s impossible to know everything that\u2019s going on in the world, so you need to rely on other people too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being proud<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a moment to reflect on her journey, what does Maria feel about all she has achieved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost ten years of change for me. I never thought I\u2019d actually be able to have Q+ attached to my job role or be something I could do for work, or campaigning for change or being part of these big EDI conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud that I was able to find myself and accept who I am. It took a lot of work to get rid of the shame that was attached to it, coming from an orthodox family, and it\u2019s still an ongoing battle in the family setting. But I\u2019m proud that I was able to do so much and I\u2019m still striving to work towards the Q+ initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re incredibly proud of the impact our alumni are making around the world, campaigning for inclusivity and celebrating queerness.<\/em> This Pride Month, we\u2019ve been asking alumni in the Q+ community how Westminster supported them in becoming who they are today. Keep a look out for more stories this week.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Pride month, we\u2019re sharing the stories and celebrating achievements of our queer alumni. Here, we speak to Commercial Music Performance alumna, Maria Jula (She\/Her), about pink washing, coming out at Westminster and her role as co-chair of the Q+…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":2458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-interviews","category-alumni-stories","tag-pride"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2466,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions\/2466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}