By Flynn Jacobs-Holden
The University of Leicester’s LGBT+ society hosted a queer board game night at Reroll Board Game Cafe on Thursday evening, in a bid to explore queer-made games.
Matthew Simpson, president of the LGBT+ society and LGBT+ officer of the Leicester Students’ Union, said the society collaborated with the tabletop society to put on the event.
Attendees played Thirsty Sword Lesbians, a tabletop roleplaying game focusing on telling melodramatic and queer stories.
“We wanted to host the event to collaborate with other societies,” said Matthew. “We have a lot of overlapping members, particularly with the tabletop society.
“The game is queer-created, made for and by queers. It’s nice to change things up a bit,” he added.
Simpson says he took on the role of president at the society in order to keep it from falling apart.
“I wanted to become president of the society in order to continue the society forward and provide a space for queer people; to make sure it exists.
“Last year the committee fell apart, there wasn’t a treasurer or wellbeing officer, I wanted to make sure it was continued and that the space was available.”
The society hopes for greater collaboration with De Montfort University’s LGBTQ+ society, as well as other universities in the midlands area, to amplify the community spirit.
“We want to promote the overall Leicester queer community,” he said. “There tends to be a lot of rivalry between universities, which there shouldn’t be.
“We had a karaoke night with DMU’s gay society recently. It was like a glee club finale; a beautiful experience.”
The society has a number of events being planned, with the highlight being its annual fundraising event ‘Love Music Hate Homophobia’.
The event promises dance, music, and poetry, with ticket proceeds supporting the Leicester LGBT centre.
