LGBTQIA+ Network at UZH Still Growing

How do you connect with others when you’re queer, new to the university and perhaps not all that familiar with Swiss customs? For LGBTQIA+ students, the student association PolyUniQue is a great place to start. And since March 2024, the university’s staff, PhD candidates and postdocs have been able to join a network set up at the Office for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

The employee network was initiated by a young professor – let’s call him Peter – who had previously taught in another country before moving to Switzerland. With few personal contacts in Zurich, one of his friends invited him along for a meet-up for LGBTQIA+ employees in the banking industry. “It was an informal setting where I could talk openly and gain valuable contacts. I thought: there should be something like this at UZH, too.”

Together with the EDI Office, he organized an inaugural meeting on campus, which was attended by around 90 people of 150 who joined the network.  “Probably every letter of the LGBTQIA+ community was represented,” says Peter. Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive. “But I think there are still more LGBTQIA+ people in the UZH community who haven’t yet felt ready to join us,” he adds.

The LGBTQIA+ network at UZH wants to be a home for these people as well as their loved ones and organize events on a regular basis. “Unfortunately, the network isn’t yet at a point where it runs itself,” says Peter. The original idea was that any member could use the network to organize get-togethers – whether for after-work drinks at the pub or a game of football. “Our second event was an outdoor picnic, and it was attended by fewer people than the first one at the university, which is more of a safe setting,” he says.  One of the reasons may have been that people feel more eager to participate in the events organized in a safe setting on campus.

Peter is fully out as a gay man, but he understands these concerns, even though he himself hasn’t experienced any discrimination at UZH or in Zurich. “It might take a bit longer for the queer community to be accepted in Switzerland, but outright hostility is quite rare,” he says. That isn’t the case in his home country, where he faces repercussions for his sexual orientation and involvement in an LGBTQIA+ network. This is also why he prefers to be referred to as “Peter” in this article.