Can You Hear Us? Can You See Us? – Queer Students in Higher Education

31.8.2025

A thoughtless joke at the lunch table, research data based on binary norms in study materials. A gentle hand on a shoulder, student overall patches and pins that help us recognize one another. Being visibly and invisibly queer can be oh so painful and beautiful at the same time. What is everyday life like for queer students in higher education? What does it look like, feel like, sound like? 

We want to offer LGBTQIA+ students in higher education the opportunity to make their voices heard. As part of the QueerMieli project by Nyyti ry, we are collecting student stories during our autumn campaign to support our educational and advocacy work. The aim is to shed light on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ students and increase awareness of minority stress and its impact on well-being. The campaign starts during Jyväskylä Pride Week on September 1st and ends during the Mental Health and Trans Awareness Weeks on November 23rd, 2025. 

Your story can take shape as a comic, a drawing, a poem, perhaps a watercolor painting or something else. Your story can be big or small, everyday or detailed, abstract or straightforward... Every story is an important gateway to conversations about equality, inclusion, and the effects of minority stress on well-being within the higher education community. You are warmly welcome to share your creative story with us! Among those who shared their stories, we will be raffling off a €100 gift card to the Sateenkaarikauppa!

As part of the student story campaign, we are organizing three workshops: on September 5th in Jyväskylä, on October 16th in Helsinki in collaboration with Taiteen Sulattamo, and on November 7th online on Zoom. Stories created or inspired during these workshops can be submitted for publication during the campaign or kept private as part of your personal creative process. All workshops follow Nyyti's safer space principles. The main working language in the workshops is Finnish, but you are welcome to share your story also in English or Swedish. 

For whom: LGBTQIA+ students in higher education

When: Stories will be collected between September 1st and November 23rd, 2025. Those who submit a story will be contacted separately about possible publication.

How: You can submit your story electronically here. You're also welcome to share your story anonymously or under a pseudonym.