For the third consecutive year, during the month of June, Progress Pride flags were raised and displayed proudly around the EUI campus. These flags symbolise and honour the diversity of the LGBTQAI+ community, including trans and non-binary individuals, People of Colour (POC), and those affected by or lost to AIDS/HIV, underscoring their belonging and significance within the community.
Pride Month 2025 at the EUI opened with the Workshop ‘Sensitive matters: vulnerability in oral history and interviewing, organised on 3 June by the Oral History and Interviewing Working Group with the aim to explore the emotional complexities of interviewing marginalised communities and how to ask sensitive questions with care, navigate vulnerability, and balance curiosity with ethical responsibility, so to approach personal narratives in research without imposing or extracting.
This year, the 'Library Café for Pride Month' was held on 16 June, where EUI members could browse a curated selection and borrow books highlighting LGBTQAI+ history, rights, and narratives. Organised by the EUI Library in collaboration with the EDI Team, the event offered a space for learning and dialogue. Browse the Library Catalogue with all the titles on display.
As part of the EDI podcast series ‘The Elephant in the Room’, a special Pride Month episode aired on 18 June, featuring a discussion with Dr. Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, an EUI alumnus and current EDI consultant. The conversation tackled the evolving challenges facing EDI work in Europe, the realities of LGBTQAI+ experiences in academia, and how inclusive practices have grown at the EUI. The episode will be available soon on the EUI YouTube channel.
Pride Month drew to a close at the EUI with its participation as an official delegation in Toscana Pride 2025, on 21 June in Prato. EUI members marched under the banner ‘Queering EUI – Lottiamo per ciò che è giusto’ (‘We fight for what is right’) - chosen during last year’s call for slogan by a committee representing all main EUI constituencies - and rocked matching t-shirts and rainbow fans. It was both a celebration and an opportunity to reflect on the significance of Pride for the LGBTQAI+ community and to strengthen the EUI sense of belonging with one another.
In the lead-up to Toscana Pride 2025, a call for visuals was also launched, encouraging EUI members to submit designs that capture the vibrancy of the community and the spirit of Pride. The visuals received were turned into colourful gadgets and stickers distributed to the EUI members during the Pride Parade.
Interested in learning more about LGBTQAI+ at EUI? Explore our dedicated resources and initiatives:
- An online exhibit at the Historical Archives of the European Union, curated by archivists on the occasion of Pride Month 2024, unveiling the actions taken for LGBTQ+ rights at work between 1987 and 2003.
- The LGBTQIA+ Staff Network Proud to BƎ! provides an inclusive and safe environment for all lesbian, gay, bi, trans, non-binary, queer, intersex, asexual or questioning (LGBTQIA+) EUI members. Proud to BƎ!'s goal is to create a safe and supportive environment where everyone can freely express themselves.
- The Queer and Feminist Studies working group provides an environment for various discussions on different issues related to queer and feminist theory. It organises discussions on papers written by EUI researchers, providing a space for exchange of thoughts on feminism, gender, and queer movements with invitated guest speakers.
- The LGBTQIA+ Society is an informal network, aiming to provide a welcoming and safe space for inclusion, support, solidarity, and friendly fun for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQAI+ community.
If you have any ideas, proposals, or questions that can help us enhance LGBTQAI+ inclusion at the EUI, please contact [email protected].