A Space to Belong This Pride Month
We are joined by Jill Corbyn, Founder and Director at Neurodiverse Connection, to talk about what Pride Month can mean for LGBTQIA+ people with different lived experiences of identity, community and belonging. In this blog, they introduce NdC’s new LGBTQIA+ peer meetup space, created to offer a welcoming, neurodivergent-affirming environment for connection, support and shared understanding.
Pride Month can bring many different feelings. For some of us, it’s joyful. A celebration of identity, community, visibility and survival. For others, it can feel lonely, overwhelming, or like there’s nowhere we fully fit. Many LGBTQIA+ people are still navigating isolation, discrimination, mental health challenges, family rejection, inaccessible services, or simply the exhaustion that can come from moving through a world that doesn’t always make space for us.
Over the past year, we asked LGBTQIA+ people what support they wanted from NdC. People told us they wanted connection in a peer led space. Somewhere they could meet others who understand. A space without pressure, judgement, or the need to explain themselves. Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we’re now able to make that happen.
This Pride Month, we’re launching NdC’s LGBTQIA+ meetup: a free peer space for people in our community.
As someone who is queer myself, I know how powerful it can be to be in a room where you don’t have to shrink parts of yourself to feel comfortable. Spaces like this can remind us that we are not “too much”, “too sensitive”, “too different”, or alone. They can give us room to breathe.
This space is not about having the right words, the right labels, or having everything figured out. We don’t gatekeep identities and welcome anyone questioning their sexuality, gender and/or neurodivergence. You are welcome exactly as you are.
My experience is that it’s deeply grounding being with people who understand some part of me without needing a long explanation. Whether that’s navigating identity, neurodivergence, mental health, relationships, access needs, masking, burnout, joy, or uncertainty, being heard and recognised by peers can make a real difference.
We also know that many LGBTQIA+ spaces can feel inaccessible or unsafe for some people, especially neurodivergent people, disabled people, people questioning their identity, people from marginalised communities, or those who have had difficult experiences elsewhere. We want this space to be welcoming, gentle, and community-led. There will be no expectation to speak, perform, educate others, or fit into any particular version of queerness.
Launching this space during Pride Month feels especially meaningful. Pride began as protest, resistance, and community care. At its heart, Pride has always been about creating spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can exist fully and safely. While rainbow branding appears everywhere in June, many people in our communities are still searching for genuine connection and belonging. We hope this space can offer a small piece of that.
Whether you’re looking to meet people, feel less isolated, share experiences, listen quietly, or simply spend time in an affirming environment, we’d love to welcome you.
We’re excited to build this together. I’m looking forward to meeting you at our first gathering in September.
