Matt Ward - LGBTQ Officer

All good things

2010-07-31T10:00:00.113+01:00

Today marks not only the end of my term as LGBTQ Officer, but my time as a student at the University of Birmingham. It was an honour and a privilege to take on this role in my fourth and final year, and to work with colleagues and friends I have known for years, and those I became close friends with over the past year. Writing this, my leaving speech, has been the most difficult part of it all.

My core ethos as LGBTQ Officer was to see that every single straight, gay, lesbian, bi, trans or otherwise-defined student came to this University, truly enjoyed the experience, succeeded in academic and prospered in their careers regardless of aspects so trivial as sexuality and gender; and to ensure that any student feeling uncomfortable with either did not have to suffer alone and in silence. To ensure equality for all. I refuse to believe that we should pedestal a minority - even one I was elected to represent - and elevate them to a level of permanent supremacy in order to achieve equality, and justify it with past oppression. While I have done my best to fight for social and academic equality for LGBTQ people in particular, I have refused to ban heterosexual friends and colleagues of LGBTQ students in events, campaigns as they have been in the past.

I was completely unprepared for the movement of politically opinionated - bordering on fascist - angry minority elitists, determined to exact vengeance on who they perceived to be a demographic majority while operating under the name of "liberation". My main regret is that the uphill battle I tried to fight against this movement was seemingly futile; the prevalence of these views in the NUS, the Guild will always hold sway and their hostile attitudes will drive the very students they claim to speak for back into the closet. I urge those who will carry on my work to see this movement for what it really is; an affront to equality and freedom of speech. Please remember how hard coming out and accepting yourself for who you are was for you, and how it must be for any new student. Empathy towards them is infinitely more important than political idealism. Although it is important to effect change on a larger scale and empower our students in this way, we must never forget that the student movement is for the benefit of Students; not our careers and certainly not a political party.

Looking back, this year was one hell of a blast, but it was a LOT of work. The LGBTQ was essentially starting over and we hoped to rebuild it to the excellent standard it held in my first year (back then, as the LGBT). With a new Officer and committee and with limited resources, I think it's safe to say we really pulled our weight. We were there by the National Blood Service van, encouraging those able to give blood while campaigning against the ongoing blood ban, as a national review likely to revoke this institutionally-homophobic policy began. Weekly coffee afternoons and film nights were successfully organised, allowing our students to socialise, make new friends and discuss relevant matters of varying degrees concerning their lives as out and proud LGBTQ people. We worked closely with University Equality and Diversity, Counselling and Guidance to not only work to improve matters for LGBTQ students, but to take part in the creation of Birmingham's first staff LGBT group. We raised our profile for Trans welfare and awareness, marking Transgender Day of Remembrance with a candle-lit vigil. We worked closely with the Chaplaincy and various faith societies and co-ran some highly successful Faith and Sexuality events. We fundraised for two charities on World AIDs Day, slept outside in our homemade cardboard fortress to raise money for homeless LGBTQ people, ran many joint events with societies, and took part in political events and protests. We worked to combat homophobia in clubs, and massively improved our online profile through our new website, Facebook, Twitter and various over forms of online media.

In my mind, Coalition was the greatest accomplishment of myself as an Officer, and the LGBTQ as an Association this year. Building and rebuilding friendships with the LGBT groups, planning and organising in time for History Month earned ourselves, Cov, Warwick and BCU the NUS LGBT Event of the Year award. Coalition, which now includes Aston, Wolverhampton, Derby, Newman and Gloucestershire, is now in a strong position to go forward and I wish the future chairs, officers and presidents of this organisation's constituent members the best of luck.

The efforts of two committees that I have had the privilege of working with earned us a 10/10 rating for student LGBTQ groups with Stonewall. To Dan and the new committee, I can only say "keep up the good work". And if this drops by even one or two points this next time next year, I shall hunt you down and destroy you. :)

The simple fact is that I could never have done any of this without the help of a lot of people. There are a few special mentions here but they are, by far, not the only people deserving of a "thank you" followed by a mildly awkward hug.

The Sabbs: Fabian and Ed - I've known you both for a long time, worked with you as RA presidents/VP's (dug out this picture from the first HIG barcrawl to prove it), and in my first blog post I foresaw that you would both become the amazing President and VPHC that you became. Johnny - my Sabb mentor, and the one person without which most of my events and campaigns this year would never have come to fruition. Your work, dedication and passion speaks for itself and you most certainly deserved the honour of becoming the first re-elected Sabb. Please take good care of Emma. Tom, Brigid, Emma and Katie, I'm going to miss wondering into your offices uninvited and talking shit to alleviate my own boredom. You have made an excellent team this year and you will be sorely missed, by myself, the Guild and most of all, the thousands of students whose lives you have greatly improved.

My fellow non-sabb scum! Edd, it's fair to say that you haven't been a particularly popular officer with Guild Council or the Sabbs, but you've had the balls to make your point and stick by it. For this reason myself and the other non-sabbs have stuck by you when you faced censures or otherwise got in trouble with the Guild. We came to respect you and it was a privilege to help you out wherever we could, provided it didn't go *too* far. ;) If anyone else asked me to get naked in front of the library for an ethical cause, I *might* have said no. I'm going to miss competing for the highest blog count, but I'm content in the knowledge that I won. :D Claire, in a short time you have done a fantastic job and I think it is an utter travesty that you were not re-elected for another year. If I can give you one piece of advice, please stay involved with the Association you worked so hard to set up. It has been a pleasure to work with you and to be your friend. Simon, the one who just couldn't stay away from the Guild! I'm still confused as to whether or not you finish with the rest of us, but your enthusiasm has been a constant source of joy and maybe *some* inspiration too :) I hope you take that to the new team. Anna, Jo and Allan: this year has had it's ups and downs, and I wish we had more time to get to know each other as a team, but I couldn't ask for a nicer, more dedicated group of fellow non-sabbs for my year in office. Ahmed, Esther and Jamahl: I regret that I didn't make a particularly great effort to bond with you guys; please stay involved with the Guild and good luck with the rest of your degrees.

My predecessors, Emma O'Dwyer and Alex Wright, and oldies from the original LGBT Association (Manaal, Stu and co) - the advice you have given me this year has been invaluable and I hope that I've lived up to your expectations as an Officer, and brought the LGBTQ back to the standard you kept back in the day.

Rob Unwin - my best friend over the past year, my housemate and fellow committee member; one of the few people I could really talk to when I felt down, someone who was always there when the demands of this year overwhelmed me. You've had to put up with a lot of crap this year from certain cliques eager to label you "an evil Tory" because you have the guts to challenge popular views you don't necessarily agree with. I urge you to never let this get you down and more importantly, to never give into these people. Over the past year you have made yourself an invaluable member of the committee and if the new committee don't take advantage of your wisdom then, quite frankly, they're not doing their jobs properly.

Dan Ross - for putting up with me and caring for me at possibly the busiest and most stressful seven months in my life even if you were hundreds of miles away, I *suppose* you deserve a thank you. ;)

Sarah Perry and Elaine Wood - you of all people know that my term as Officer got off to a very bad start, and I have you to thank for overcoming that because of the personal support you gave me - particularly over last summer - and everything you did to help me out in this role, from voluntary stewarding to covering for me at coffee afternoons.

Kai Weston - I can never underestimate how invaluable you were to my goal of improving trans welfare and awareness and I really enjoyed working with you to that end. Good luck in your role on NUS LGBT Committee and don't be a stranger to the LGBTQ next year; I have no doubt your insight will be needed again.

Tom Fisher, the me of Cov Uni, good friend, fellow geek and a driving force behind Coalition. You've outdone yourself this year as an Officer; I know this because I have stolen a few of your ideas along the way and they worked out pretty damned well. The sheer amount of geeky references we've put into speeches, blogs and even smart-dress events is utterly shameful (the new years eve prank shown right was a good one). I wish you luck in your new role as faculty chair and don't fall out of touch.

To my colleagues and friends in Coalition: Adam Simmonds, Julie Frost, Lizzy Lincoln, Nick Peters, Katie Kates, Lev Taylor, Eddie Durnan, Abbie Parkinson, Claire Smith, John Mullinger, Sue Rose and Mike Findlay, to name a few - without you, Coalition would still just be an occasional thing that no one really cared about and no one had any faith in. Please remind those who carry on your good work how we managed to succeed so well this year and urge them to keep strong the friendships between our respective Universities.

Kara Cooper - I can't really express in words how thankful I am. You've given so much to the Association, our students and you have worked so hard to eliminate the myth that faith and sexuality are mutually exclusive. More than that, you've been a friendly listener to students with personal problems and I've heard many, many good things. If you ever need some volunteers to help you out at your future events, I'm more than willing.

Jane Tope, Susan Squire, David Mair and Helen Boyle - it has been a pleasure to work with you all as representatives of E&D and the Counselling service and I am grateful for the huge contribution you've made for LGBTQ students. I'm going to miss our Starbucks meetings and free-food network events.

To the rest of the old committee: Ian Mallowan, Brooke Simons-Akwah and Dan Kelsey - it was one hell of a year and I appreciate all that you contributed to our successes this year, particularly over Freshers and History Month.

To the rest of the new committee: Dan Guzman, Andy Roche, John Chivers, Christian White, Katherine Johnson, Sarah Green, Caitlin Horne and Dan Doherty - you guys have your work cut out for you, but you've made a good start and you have a good footing to run an amazing Association this year. You have been good friends, and I hope that you extend that friendship to new members of the Association. Keep in touch :)

My brother, Chris - as it turned out, I relied quite heavily on your advice in undertaking this role and I owe many of my successes to you. I would like to think that, in the future, we will continue to help each other out when campaigning for LGBT* related stuff.

Kitten Onwordi, chair of the LGBTQ committee during the majority of my term - I'm not gonna lie; you have really, really pissed me off at times this year, and yes I know it's a mutual thing. What annoys me the most is that we go through seemingly random phases of loving each other and being really good friends, to hating each others' guts; case in point, infamous shouting match outside the Gale. :P The truth is that although I have some issues with some of your views, I have relied on you to a great deal to address certain areas of representation that and you haven't let me down. At the end of the day, our hegemonic leadership actually did a lot of good because constantly, often violently competing with each other (writing that bit actually made me laugh) forced us to really put in 250% effort. Thank you for a good, albeit challenging year, and best of luck with your year abroad and plans for the future.

Now I want to wrap up by talking about my successor, Emma Cooper. I have never seen a fresher, who had been at University for only a few days, so eager to take a few hours out and help a liberation association door-knock and flyer around halls of residence. As an Officer-Elect, Emma has done a lot of amazing work of her own free will and out of her passion, dedication and enthusiasm for the role she is about to undertake. Almost immediately after being elected, I had to disappear to finish my final year project, my dissertation and revise for exams. Emma stepped right in and did an amazing job of covering for me over this period. Emma, you got the votes of over 1,200 students for a very good reason. I'm proud to be succeeded by someone of your calibre and I only wish I was still around to see the good work you will do and the many students who will prosper under your leadership.

And so ends my 86th and final blog post! Kthnxbai.

The future of Birmingham LGBTQ

2010-07-10T23:07:00.000+01:00

My exams have finished, I've been awarded my final degree classification - M.Eng. Computer Science/Software Engineering 2:1 Class Honours (yay!) - and I have recently begun my full-time job as a web developer. I do not officially stand down until 1^st August so this is not quite the end...not just yet. I'm writing this blog to provide my constituents with the full picture of what's been happening these past few months, and how things will work from now until I officially step down.

Handover and Succession

As many of you know, Emma Cooper was elected to succeed me as LGBTQ Officer in the 2010/2011 academic year. We began a gradual handover process almost immediately after Results Night which has continued through to this day. As Officer-Elect, Emma has been shadowing me, working with me, attending meetings with me and has been good enough to fill in for me when the demands of my final year became so great that I was unable to fulfil my officer duties.

Similarly, the new LGBTQ committee under the leadership of Dan and Emma have settled in well to their job and are doing a good job of regularly updating the LGBTQ website and are well on the case for Freshers 2010.

Bottom line, Emma is more than ready to take on the role at any point. I'm in the middle of producing a final handover document and preparing a handover meeting which will wrap things up (will upload it here when done). As the demands on my time have rendered me no longer able to effectively fulfil my duties as an active officer, Emma is now effectively the LGBTQ Officer/

Blog and contact details

When I find the time (no promises!) I will continue to update this blog up until the 31^st, at which point my leaving speech will be automatically posted. I haven't quite finished it yet...and by "finished" I really mean "started"; but plenty of time left!

The Guild and LGBTQ Association will arrange for all contact details to be redirected on 1^st August.

Final GOG and Guild Council of this year

2010-06-20T05:44:00.002+01:00

I have to admit I thought I'd be better than I have been at reporting on the outcome of Guild Officer Group meetings and individual sessions of Guild Council. However I'm content that reporting on the highlights on a case-by-case basis throughout the year has worked quite well.

The last meeting of the 2009/2010 Guild Officer Group took place on Monday 7^th June; Guild Council a week later on Monday 14^th.

My Motions

I successfully submitted four motions through June Guild Council:

Fight for the Right to Party - part of the LGBTQ campaign and heavily based on our research.
Face to a name - Non-Sabb Visibility - not the first time I've tried this, but this has committed the Guild to ensuring that future Non-Sabbatical Officers are made more visible, and that it is easier for students to contact them; particularly in the case of liberation officers.
Lacking Autonomous Liberation - this mandates a review of the current Guild Officer Elections system, via a consultation with the new liberation officers, VPW and VPDR.
Q-Chat Beer Mats - Following up on our work with the Counselling and Guidance Service towards Q-Chat, this motion mandates the Guild to support them in distributing all advertising materials that would reach out to as many students as possible.

For more details, check out the motions themselves (click on a title to access one).

Leaving speeches

Traditional for the end of the year for Sabbs to, definitely worth staying for. I was quite content to be on tissue duty for when it got emotional just to stick around and see them all.

Emma gave a heart-warming and well-thought speech and some really nice introductory comments on her successor. Katie's speech was passionate, emotional, and she made sure that everyone got a "thank you". Johnny's speech wasn't strictly necessary as he has been re-elected but he went to a great deal of effort to deliver one anyway. Ed, I think, surpassed all our expectations of the inevitably humorous and witty - yet strangely inspiring - goodbye speech he was to deliver. Similarly, Tom was as charismatic and witty as we have come to expect in delivering a speech ensuring that the unrecognised many in the Guild staff and election candidates received the due credit they rarely receive. Brigid gave a good effort reflecting on her significant successes - and that of the entire Sabbatical Officer Groups - with a pretty funny edge. And Fabian...well, I will never understand how you can improvise good speeches like that; although I was kinda hoping that someone taped it and put it up on YouTube as six ten-minute videos (anyone who watched should get the reference :P).

As for us Non-Sabbs...well, we'll say goodbye in our own way. I made a brief speech on behalf of myself, Edd, Anna, Jo, Allan and Claire but I am working on a speech that will appear on here and on Facebook before the end.

GOG/GC in general

Throughout GOG/GC I have received two commendations, it's only nearly gone violent on three occasions (two of which were Palestine-related) and Edd has never failed to make it interesting. I never thought I'd say that I miss it, but I'm sure I'll hit that point before too long. In the meantime, I wish the future Officers, Guild Councillors and Independent Chairs the best of luck.

Reflections on LGBT History Month 2010

2010-06-19T06:00:00.003+01:00

I haven't had much time in the last year to write up this summary before, but our recent victory at the 2010 NUS LGBT Awards and the relatively short amount of free time I now enjoy has prompted me to clear this off my rather long to-do list.

As many of you know from blog posts and various publicity at the time, myself and Kitten worked tirelessly since December to make LGBT History Month 2010 as successful at it could possibly be, which began with a productive meeting not long into the Xmas holidays with tea and cake.

The crux of this work was to resurrect Coalition West Midlands and be sure that it never collapses as it did before by following a core ethos: we scratch their back, they scratch ours; we have nothing to lose from trying.. In the past too many people have adopted the extremely subjective "what have they done for us" approach; naturally, Coalition quickly collapsed last year as a direct consequence. In hindsight, our new approach has been highly succeesful on a number of successful joint ventures including - but not limited to - History Month.

The Opening Ceremony

“Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

The opening ceremony was hosted by Coventry LGBT+ on Monday 1^st February in Cathedral Square, Coventry and was fairly well attended by representatives from Coventry, Warwick and Birmingham. There were candles set up in the form of the trans symbol and speeches delivered by Birmingham and Coventry Officers; namely myself and Tom.

My speech began with the above quote and a summarised history of the struggle for LGBT equality; historic religious oppression, the Holocaust, the Stonewall riots and, more recently the blood ban. More importantly, the speech then went on to describe the hugely progressive steps made toward equality in recent years; I used the Faith and Sexuality project this year as a keen example. Click here to see my rather ad-hoc speech notes.

Tom's speech presented a summarised biography of Alan Turing, one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20^th Century whose forced hormonal treatment lead him to suicide. The well-delivered speech led to a two-minute silence in memory of those killed for their gender and sexual orientation, and conclusion of the ceremony.

Talks

"As long as society is anti-gay, then it will seem like being gay is antisocial."

Joseph R. Francis

There were three talks hosted by Coventry LGBT+ over the course of the month. The first, entitled "Red in the Rainbow", was a talk on Gay Liberation and Marxism with guest speaker Geoff Dexter and took place on the 10^th.

The second talk was on Civil Partnerships and took place on Monday 14^th, just after Valentines weekend. It was delivered by Ian Dunn, current head of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University. It was informative, constructive and well-delivered and served to provide unique insights beyond just the subject matter.

Finally, a faith talk by Rev. Jen Croft of Coventry University Spirituality and Faith Centre took place on Tuesday 16^th. It was similar to our own Faith and Sexuality event in December and our ongoing collaboration with the Chaplaincy here, in that it gave LGBT* students in attendance the chance to look past the incorrect perception of all religious groups as inherently oppressive, and to acknowledge that faith and sexuality are not mutually exclusive aspects of one's identity.

I myself was only able to attend the talk on Civil Partnerships, but from that experience and what Tom told me, they were well attended by representatives from all four Coalition partners.

Workshops

I organised a Trans and Queer workshop during Monday 22^nd, in the final week of February, delivered by our very own Kai Weston and Patrick 'Poggy' Murray, then-Black Students' Rep on the NUS LGBT Committee. Sadly this was quite poorly attended and only by Birmingham students but I certainly like to think it was informative. ^_^

The big workshop-related event was the Dissident Disco and Drag Show that took place in Kelsey's bar, Leamington on Saturday 20th.

It was an incredible day of action during which participants took gender way beyond binaries in the most fabulous and horrific fashion, making clothes to dress women as butch men, men as monstrous queens and a bit of mixing and matching inbetween. The workshop was followed by a disco/party at the same venue which lasted until 2AM. Again, well attended by LGBT* students from all four Coalition partners and overall, a huge success.

Coffee Afternoons and Safe Space

We at Birmingham continued with our weekly Wednesday Coffee Afternoons, but each with an individual and unique social/political theme.

Wed 3^rd: Introductory Coffee Afternoon and discussion of what LGBT History Month is and what it aims to achieve.
Wed 10^rd: Guycons and Dykons - discussion of LGBTQ icons throughout history.
Wed 17^th: Showing of Batty Man with BEMA, and ensuing discussion of faith and sexuality.
Wed 24^th: Queer Identities & Disabilities with the then-Disabled Students Association (now DAMSA).

Similarly, Coventry LGBT+ continued running their Safe Space events every Thursday in their SU building. It was good to see guests from other Universities attend each other's recurring events and further strengthening Coalition.

Film Showings

Coventry and Birmingham took a forefront with this; again, good overall attendance across Universities. The following LGBTQ films were shown to celebrate History Month:

Wilde (1997) View Trailer	Goldfish Memory (2003) View Trailer
Transamerica (2005) View Trailer	The Laramie Project (2002) View Trailer

The main event in this respect was the showing of Milk (2008; click here to see the trailer) in the Vaughn Jeffries Lecture Theatre, Education Building on Birmingham Campus. This was hosted by myself and Emma.

Homophobia is Gay 4

As many of you know, the big main event intended to wrap up History Month was postponed from Friday 26^th February until Friday 12^th March.

Honestly, HIG was the event that I really wanted to run this year, if nothing else. Homophobia is Gay has been running since my first year (in fact, I dug out this old photo of myself, Fabian and Ed from the 2006/07 HIG barcrawl; bit of nostalgia :P) and it is a tradition that I insisted on continuing, despite initial resistance from certain others.

I maintain that the barcrawl itself was worth the number and scale of organisational disasters that happened during the barcrawl's organisation, and that it was an amazing success despite these nearly-disastrous challenges. The barcrawl had three groups covering Missing, Eden, the Fox and the Gale. Coach travel from Joes was provided and T-shirts were made available to those who had bought T-shirt tickets. If you have me on Facebook, feel free to check out my HIG photo album.

In summation

History Month marks one of the largest collaborative efforts between University LGBT groups, a major milestone in Coalition's development and hopefully, the first of many such collaborative events.

Report on NUS LGBT Conference 2010

2010-06-14T22:52:00.002+01:00

On Friday 7th to Sunday 9th May 2010, seven delegates, including myself and the Officer-Elect took part in the annual NUS LGBT Conference at the Britannia Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. This is my report on the outcome of Conference and the events that took place within.

As part of my ingenius plan to mitigate £140 of Guild travel expenses, we travelled to the Conference by car and completely avoided the M6; definitely deserving of kudos. ;) The two hour drive gave delegates who weren't driving (everyone except me and Dan) ample time to read through the various conference documents, familiarise ourselves with the motions and ensure maximum preparation. We designated drivers had a chance to review the motions the day before.

Elections

LGBT Officer (Open Place):	Alan Bailey
LGBT Officer (Women's Place):	Vicki Baars
Open Reps:	Lev Taylor, Sky Yarlett, Hanif Leylabi
Women's Reps:	Sarah Burton, Emma Kerry, Kelly McBride
Trans Reps:	Kai Weston, Beth Evans
Bi Rep:	Tami Peterson
Black Student Reps:	Khaled Hamed, Bisi Alimi
Disabled Reps:	Elis Stephenson,
Further Education Reps:	Lucas Abedecian, Neesh Gibney-Thomson

Congratulations to our very own Kai Weston for hard-fought and well-earned election onto the NUS LGBT Committee.

Motions Overview:

Here's an executive summary of the outcome of each motion, with an indicator of how our delegation voted in general. For more details please refer to CD08 Final Motions Document and the minutes of the Conference when released by the NUS LGBT Campaign.

200. Welfare Zone: (Click to expand/collapse)

Motion	Our Vote	Result
201. Fighting the BNP	For	Passed
> 201a. Stop the BNP	For	Passed
> 201b. Support the right to work	For	Passed
202. Keeping the faith	For	Passed
203. HIV Treatments	For	Passed
204. Support LGBT workers	For	Passed
205. Experiencing work, not discrimination	For	Passed
206. Healthy FE	For	Passed
207. Trans Inclusive	For	Passed
208. Liberate Prisons Now!	Mixture; Personally: Against	Passed
> 208a. Prison Abolition	Generally: Abstained; Personally: Abstained	Passed
209. For a sensible approach to drugs	Generally: For; Personally: Abstained	Passed
210. Supporting Queer Homeless Youths	For	Passed
211. Welfare Not Arbitrary	For	Passed
212. LGBT Personal Care	For	Passed
213. Homophobic Bullying	For	Passed

300. Society & Citizenship Zone: (Click to expand/collapse)

Motion	Our Vote	Result
301. Reclaim Pride	For	Passed
> 301a. Brighton Pride	For	Passed
> 301b. Pride London matters	For	Passed
> 301c. Pride without Borders	For	Passed
302. Love without Borders	For	Passed
> 302a. No Borders	For	Passed
> 302b. Palestine	Generally: For; Personally: Abstained	Passed; Parts deleted
> 302c. Liberation NUS Occupation	For	Passed
303. Rainbows not War	Generally: For; Personally: Against	Passed; Parts seperated
304. Donation not Discrimination	For	Passed
305. Vote with Pride	For	Passed
306. Votes at 16	For	Passed
307. Recognising non-binary gender identities	For	Passed
308. Buggery! We won't take it lying down	For	Passed
309. Positive trans media	For	Passed
310. Pope Action	For	Passed

400. Strong and Active Unions: (Click to expand/collapse)

Motion	Our Vote	Result
401. Defend Diversity & Democracy at Annual Conference	For	Passed
402. For a feminist campaign	Generally: For; Personally: Against	Passed
403. LGBT Campaign Training	For	Passed
> 403a. Lets get lobbying	For	Passed
> 403b. Trans training	For	Passed
404. Committee Commitment	For	Passed
> 404a. Committee Commitment	For	Passed
405. LGBT in FE - creating a more representative and diverse campaign	For	Passed
406. A safer future for LGBT Youth	For	Passed
407. Discrimination in Societies & Sports	For	Passed
408. Fight for the right to Party	For	Passed
409. Poly People	Generally: Abstained; Personally: Abstained	Passed
410. Increase Communication - Utilising Officer Online	For	Passed
411. Stronger Nations	For	Passed
412. Trans Involvement	For	Passed
413. Mainstream Identities - Inclusion not discrimination	For	Passed
414. Because We're Hyper-Diverse	For	Passed
415. Uniting with Jewish LGBT students	For	Passed

500. Education: (Click to expand/collapse)

Motion	Our Vote	Result
501. No Compromise on Free Education	For	Passed
> 501a. No to Education Cuts	Generally: For; Personally: Abstained
502. Defend EMA	Mixture; Generally: Against	Passed
503. Equality & Diversity in the FE Curriculum	For	Passed Parts deleted

100. Reform

101. Policy Process, Debating Policy & the Drafting of Motions (and all amendments):
Our delegation generally agreed with all of these and our votes fell within the majority.

102. The LGBT Officers & National Executive Representation (and all amendments):
Our delegation engaged in a mixture of votes, generally in favour of or abstaining.

103. Additional Caucuses (and all amendments):
Mixed votes; I personally voted in favour of all but the Faith and Asexual caucuses, and the additional committee places. Almost all of these fell.

104. Adding 'Q' to the LGBTQ name:
Mixed votes; I personally abstained.

The Gay Men's Caucus Motion

There was a motion to add a Gay Men's caucus to the official caucuses that took place at Conference. Of our delegation, myself and one other voted very much in favour; three abstained and another two voted strongly against. I felt that the argument of a men's caucus being demeaning to women was extremely childish and hypocritical; serving only to promote women supremacy as the cornerstone of women's liberation campaigns and non-conducive to equality. So much so that they aren't even willing to attempt running a gay men's caucus and see how that went. Another example of how the angry-minority-oriented approach popular in the NUS completely undermines a progressive movement.

Seemingly smart-dress reunion of the August NUS Officer Residential lot.

Backlash from NUS Conference and the Durham Incident

Another motion was a drawback of the circumstances that led Durham to disaffiliate from the NUS.

I've been hearing more and more about this issue since the NUS National Conference in April; did a bit of background reading on blogs and news articles across the Internet. The wording of the letter sent to Durham by Bell and Daf was clearly hostile and they most certainly deserved to be censured for it. My only grife is that they should have both been censured together; I never really saw the logic in censuring them seperately as they were both equally responsible for writing that letter.

The emergency motion put forward at LGBT Conference mandated a condemnation of Bell's censure, on the basis that we should "stand in solidarity with our black students' campaign"...and that was pretty much the only reason. An amendment to this motion also mandated a censure of Wes Streeting simply because he voted in favour of censuring Bell. Those speaking in favour of the motion and amendment made it sound as if the Bell/Daf censure should never have taken place because attendees at the conference weren't guaranteed to be self-defining black/LGBT students. They seem to either forget - or completely ignore - the fact that the recipients of the Durham letter weren't either.

I personally found the entire debacle disgusting. The NUS LGBT is perfectly fine with elected officers writing abusive letters but they seem to think that we can use autonomous liberation and "historic discrimination against black/LGBT people" as an excuse to hide behind the consequences. It's an incredibly childish and petty attitude that is unbecoming of a National Union of Students. NUS Liberation Officers are just as accountable to the entirety of the NUS as I, Claire, Allan and Esther are to the entirety of Guild Council, regardless of self-definition.

I helped a colleague from Edinburgh prepare a speech against the motion that she gave to the conference, quoting the Durham letter in the defence. She delivered it quite well and argued the point strongly. In the end, myself, and two others voted against both the motion and amendment; very strongly in my case. One other voted in very strongly in favour and the remaining three simply followed suit. The vast majority of conference also voted in favour of it and in doing so submitted to this low form of retaliation; definitely a low point of the conference.

Caucuses at Conference

Bisexual Caucus - I was the only attendee. At the caucus, we elected a new Bisexual Rep to the NUS LGBT Committee. We also voted unanimously to change "bisexual" to "bi" and inclusively allow people who use other self-definitions such as "pansexual" to attend bi caucus. It can't really get much simplier; "bi" is a two-letter, one-syllable word and the implicit inclusion makes everyone happy. ^_^

Women's Caucus - Kitten, Emma and Sarah attended this; the only business at the caucus was to elect the LGBT Officer (Women's Place) and three Women's Rep positions on the NUS LGBT committee.

Trans Caucus - this was attended by Kai. As with above, this caucus main served to elect the Trans Reps to the NUS LGBT Committee but to .

We also ran our very own caucus for Coalition West Midlands, at which the LGBT groups of Derby and Gloucestershire have now joined! :)

NUS LGBT Awards

The NUS LGBT Awards took place on the Saturday and recognises the work of one or more LGBT Society this year. Specifically:

LGBT Society of the Year (FE) - Won by Basingstoke College of Technology LGBT Aware
LGBT Society of the Year (HE) - Won by University of Essex LGBT
LGBT Campaigner of the Year - Won by Colum McGuire of Kent Union LGBT
LGBT Campaign of the Year - Won by University of Nottingham LGBT and their Network Campaign.
LGBT Event of the Year - Won by Coalition West Midlands, i.e. us! (Birmingham, BCU, Coventry and Warwick LGBT groups) for our joint LGBT History Month; a successful joint venture for such a large group of Universities.

In summation...

Aside from the not-so special nature of most motions, and the infuriating backlash of the Durham situation, Conference 2010 was a success. In particular, it was an excellent opportunity for our friends from the various Coalition Universities to get together as friends and colleagues and really achieve. As a consequence, Coalition is now well-recognised as a hugely successful collaborative group of Midlands University LGBT group and will continue to expand and enjoy greater successes long after I'm gone.

Reflection on the General Election outcome

2010-06-09T01:12:00.002+01:00

As with my Conference report I've wanted to put this up sooner, but exams, family events and job interviews have delayed me significantly. Regardless, he's my followup to my pre-election post and some thoughts for you to consider; some of which you may or may not know. Again, apologies if this seems biased but please remember...these are just thoughts. :)

I woke up on the 7th May to leave for Conference and switched on the TV, somewhat surprised and horrified that the Tories - at that point - had a majority vote, heading towards an overall majority. I was also disappointed that people spoke big about the strides made by Lib Dem leadership in the past few weeks, but when push came to shove, they didn't have the constitution or the courage to reflect their words in their vote. Ultimately, many prophecies of a hung parliament were fulfilled.

Over conference I was quite out of the loop but somewhat surprised to hear of a potential Tory/Lib-De coalition government. Especially considering that their constituent MP's, councillors and members seem to differ significantly in ideology and, indeed, voting records. I'm not a fan of David Cameron; especially after his poor attempt at wooing the LGBTQ community. However, as I said in my previous post, I'm confident that the two parties will keep each other in check, and collectively, they are aware, liberal, pragmatic and practical; generally speaking of course. With the nomination of suspect cabinet members such as Theresa May - with her well-known voting record on LGBTQ rights - we, as responsible representatives of students, have a duty to lobby the coalition government on important issues in a fair and responsible manner.

The Labour hacks in UK student politics condemn the Lib Dems for "shopping around" as opposed to making a snap decision. What they don't know is that Labour had no intention of forming a coalition with the Lib Dems. It wouldn't have achieved a majority and they preferred the opposition. Not to mention, they faced a particularly pressing leadership issue which has still not been resolved.

"Labour Students organise in student politics because we believe that the student movement must be guided by Labour values."

[src]

The Labour hacks condemn the Lib Dems for finally entering into coalition with the Conservatives. If there's one thing that the Conference made abundantly clear to me, it's that the NUS and Labour have been in coalition for a lot longer. A major and very accurate criticism of the NUS is that it is dominated by Labour students, which diminishes it's ability to act impartially in the interest of students. Regardless of what Labour have done on behalf of minority groups during their twelve-year tenure, we do not answer to the party, however we are answerable to our students. As my brother quite brilliantly put it, we should dismantle the NUS and in it's place create a National Union of Students.

I witnessed some vile behaviour from Labour hacks during my term in office (particularly over the election period): arrogantly denouncing any non-Labour views, tearing up Lib Dem publicity in Joes; the list goes on. A Facebook group was created the day after Cameron and Clegg assumed office by angered Labour students. Some even had the audacity to flood Facebook with public statuses inviting Lib Dem students to embrace "progressive politics"...by joining the Labour Party. To be completely honest, I'm looking at this overall behaviour as nothing more than a temper tantrum; it was easy for Labour hacks to be arrogant while their government was in power and now...not so much. Reject the childish acts of these political opportunist traitors to the student community; who have no ground to stand on now that the extent of Labour's financial abuse is now well-known. It is our responsibility to accept the outcome, move on and start working toward a prosperous future.

That being said, the student community should be very concerned about the "tuition fees" part of the coalition agreement. The Lib Dems have always stood against HE tuition fees and, before the election, announced their six-point plan to eliminate them completely if elected into power. They signed an NUS pledge to scrap tuition fees; not to sit on their hands if they can't accept the Tory reaction to the Browne report and let Tory and Labour MP's marketise higher education. Liberal Youth have already taken a stance against this unacceptable concession at their recent conference and voted overwhelmingly to petition the Deputy PM to renegotiate this part of the agreement. More on this as it develops.

Save the life of Kiana Firouz

2010-05-22T10:36:00.002+01:00

Iranian filmmaker, actress and lesbian activist Kiana Firouz is in danger of being deported back to Iran for her "crime of unrepentant homosexuality"; for which the punishment is execution.

Kiana worked as an underground activist for LGBT women's rights. During this time, she documented the horrific treatment of LGBT people in Iran and shot footage for a documentary about the commonplace horrific abuse of human rights there. When items of footage were discovered by Iranian Intelligence, Kiana was harrassed by agents in Tehran and fled to the UK as a student two years ago. Kiana has since directed and played a key role in Cul de Sac, the culmination of her work.

Her application for asylum in the UK was rejected by the Home Office, who were fully aware of the persecution Kiana faced in light of her sexual orientation. The Ministry argued that she could return to Iran and conceal her homosexuality. Seeing as the well-publicised evidence blatantly contradicts this ruling, it would seem that the Home Office is guilty of, at best, gross incompetence; at worst, wilful negligence.

LGBTQ rights in Iran

Iran's "lawful" approach to sexuality; noosing two unidentified gay teens for their "crime".

LGBTQ equality was once a reality in Iran, prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution; a Gay Liberation movement was in the works and even publicised gay marriages were tolerated. Since then, the country's laws regarding LGBTQ rights have been based on an extremely conservative interpretation of Islamic law. Homosexuality is punishable by lashing, or execution by hanging in more "extreme" cases; Transexuals are institutionalised and often forced to undergo hormone treatments; LGBTQ people as a whole undergo sex change operations for fear of extreme persecution. It is utterly disgusting.

Make no mistake; forcing Kiana to return to Iran is nothing short of marching her to her death. We're talking about a women who, in the face of extreme oppression, had the courage to step forward and speak out against it; to put a face to the abuse suffered by Kiana and her LGBTQ comrades in Iran. Every free and liberal LGBTQ person has an obligation to stand with her in solidarity and prevent this travesty from taking place.

What the student community can do

First and foremost, please sign this petition and join this Facebook group and show your support. And please...spread the word. Raising national awareness of this issue is a crucial part of this campaign.

Both the Lib Dems AND the Tories pledged to change the rules specifically for asylum seekers; acknowledging the consequences suffered by LGBTQ people who - just like Kiana - were sent back and told to keep quiet under the previous Government's policy. That being said...the new Minister for Women and Equalities, Theresa May, has consistently voted against LGBTQ rights and - in my humble opinion - was a poor choice for the job. Regardless, it is time for her to do her part to uphold her party's pledges. I will also be writing to Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem undersecretary for Equality - who, by contrast, has an excellent voting record for LGBTQ rights - to doubly ensure that conservative views towards homosexuality in the UK do not further jeopardise Kiana Firouz. I invite you all to lobby your MP's to take action on this issue.

"Gay Education" Cartoon

2010-05-20T21:40:00.001+01:00

This educational cartoon is both amusing and educational; they really should show it as part of sex education in schools. It's very effective at busting some popular myths and old views about homosexuality.

Availability during exams (or lack, thereof)

2010-05-14T12:15:00.001+01:00

As my final year exams begin tomorrow I'm about to drop off the map again, which puts back my long-awaited report on NUS LGBT Conference 2010, the General Election outcome, Coalition and a few other blogs I have in the works.

In the meantime, if you are an LGBTQ student who is in need of support, please contact the ARC or Counselling and Guidance Service as first ports of call.

See you all in two weeks!

Election Musing

2010-05-06T01:23:00.001+01:00

This is for all those of you who have been working hard on behalf of political parties these past few weeks, and those of you who have been flooded with campaign-related post.

Enjoy, folks.

Fight for the right to party!

2010-05-04T12:46:00.003+01:00

Based on the number of complaints received regarding bouncer-sanctioned homophobia in clubs (or homophobia, biphobia or transphobia of any kind), myself, Kitten, Dan, Emma and the committee have initiated a campaign entitled "Fight for the Right to Party".

Kitten has been spearheading this campaign and has recently released a survey, which everyone can take by visiting http://righttoparty.lgbtq.co.uk. If you have experienced any kind of homophobia in clubs - especially those promoted and supported by the Guild - don't accept it as a fact of life. We can and will do something about it.

As I've mentioned before, Kitten submitted a motion to the 2010 NUS LGBT Conference that will take place this weekend in Liverpool. This has now been finalised with amendments and now reads as follows:

207 Fight For The Right To Party

Conference believes:

An integral part of the student experience is social interaction outside of their course.
LGBTQ Students are often excluded from hetero-normative events both internally run by student unions and external ones endorsed by them.
Student Unions frequently hold hetero-normative events that exclude LGBTQ students, such as (heterosexual) speed dating.
Research by the University of Birmingham LGBTQ Association has shown that many LGBTQ students have faced discrimination in venues in the city of their university, such as being as to leave or being treated in a hostile manner by staff and security for kissing their partners or ‘displaying’ their sexuality or gender identity.
Recent extreme violence against the LGBTQ community in Birmingham venues as only served to highlight the extent and urgency of this issue.
Many University social events are held in venues where it is known that LGBTQ-phobia takes place.
Although LGBTQ students are protected by law from this kind of discrimination, in reality, LGBTQ-phobia is still alive and well, and made worse by support of these venues by Student Unions.

Conference further believes:

As a part of the National Union of Students, the NUS LGBT campaign has the power to lobby student unions to protect LGBTQ students by refusing to give endorsement to LGBTQ-phobic venues and ensuring that internal events are LGBTQ-friendly.
That the NUS LGBT campaign has an opportunity to take a leading role in informing student unions of this issue, and to provide support for societies for LGBTQ students within unions to campaign within their own unions on the issue.

Conference resolves:

To begin a Fight for the Right to Party campaign that both lobbies student unions, venues (where appropriate) and supports LGBTQ societies in carrying out this campaign at a campus level.
To campaign by lobbying student unions not to promote or endorse events, clubs or venues that are LGBTQphobic.
To encourage unions to demand that venues outline their policy regarding treatment of LGBTQ visitors in writing before considering their endorsement or promotion.
To encourage unions to ensure that their internal events are LGBTQ-friendly.
To encourage unions to promote LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly events.
To create a written guide for unions, venues and LGBT societies on the subject of active inclusion of LGBTQ students at events and nights out
To create a Fight for the Right to Party campaign guide and workshop to provide information and support for student LGBTQ societies to tackle this issue at a campus and local level.

207a Fight For The Right To Party (Amendment)

Conference further believes:

That events that exclude LGBTQ students frequently exclude those from other on-traditional student groups.
Working in partnership with other liberation campaigns only adds capacity and energy for delivery.

Conference resolves:

To encourage the campaign to fight for the right to party to be adaptable for use with and by other liberation campaigns.

As the motion and subsequent amendments indicate, this campaign can and should be adapted to suit all other liberation campaigns as needed; hence the current and future Black/Ethnic Minority Students' Officer, Disabled Students' Officer and Women's Officer may wish to steal an idea or too. I'm definitely game for some inter-liberation collaboration during the remainder of my term!

Article: "HIV is not a Gay Disease"

2010-05-02T02:16:00.003+01:00

My brother recently wrote an article for the Guardian that might be of some interest to LGBTQ students, especially in the current climate. It is aptly entitled "HIV is not a gay disease" and speaks out against the inaccurate association of sexual transmitted diseases with the gay community; more specifically, the comments of Julian Lewis that I myself raised in my recent blog about the General Election.

For your consideration.

The General Election

2010-04-29T01:52:00.002+01:00

The General Election is now only a week away. You may have seen the party broadcasts or the Prime-Ministerial debates. You may have made up your mind about who you're voting for in the upcoming general election or you may still be deciding. Whatever the case, as the Guild's LGBTQ Officer, I wanted to add my own thoughts for the consideration of LGBTQ students.

Our struggle for equality has seen great strides taken in the past decades. While LGBTQ people are still subject to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic abuse in certain circles - some of which I will discuss below in context - awareness and understanding of different sexualities has vastly improved since the turn of the century.

The Labour Party

Although I may not always agree with the Labour party's methods (case in point: positive discrimination) I can't deny that LGBTQ equality has thrived under the party's twelve-year tenure. I'd also like to add that if all Labour candidates were of the same calibre as our incumbent VPEA, Brigid Jones (who is running for Selly Oak, incidentally :P), I'd vote for them anyday.

That being said, I was barely old enough to vote during the last General Election. Labour winning that year resulted in the introduction of a £3,000 annual tuition fee for HE students - in direct contravention of the 2001 Labour Manifesto promise, reading:

"We have no plans to introduce University top-up fees, and have legislated to prevent their introduction."

They lied to the public and they lied to students; consequently, we are now paying through the noses for University education so that we may become the future skilled workforce of this nation. At the same time, the government has made it obscenely easy for thousands of citizens to willingly commit benefit fraud; some avoiding work altogether. Labour then had the audacity to consider removing the cap on top-up fees and ultimately reviving the dangerous association of intellect, ability and potential with socio-economic background. These facts cannot be ignored by students, prospective students or parents/guardians of either.

Admittedly this all sounds very personal, but it is intentionally so; this is how I have perceived the party during my time as Officer. My utter disgust of Labour cliques ruling the NUS in recent years has certainly not helped this perception.

The Conservative Party

"Tory" has been a dirty word among Guild hacks for as long as I can remember; the LGBTQ especially. The concerns of the LGBTQ community in that respect are primarily related to Section 28, and the proportion of Tory officials - including David Cameron - who supported this homophobic legislation and/or voted against it's repeal.

An interview with David Cameron back in February manifested itself in a rather unflattering article in Gay Times; part of an ill-conceived attempt to "reach out" to the gay community.

Even if Cameron was at least trying to be sincere in that rather suspicious interview he has clearly not convinced representatives of his own party. To name a few recent examples:

All of these people have, in one way or another, spoken up against aspects of homosexuality in the name of conservative-religious intolerance or otherwise-outmoded narrow views. These are all recent cases; which is astonishing, considering how close we are to a general election. Regardless of the sanctions imposed upon them by the party, the multitude of these occurrences casts significant doubt on the party's overall ability to move beyond biggotive views of LGBTQ people that the Tories have been associated with for years. To put it simply, Cameron needs to get his house in order before any self-respecting LGBTQ person could vote Conservative in confidence, without being terrified by the prospect of returning historic oppression.

The Liberal Democrats

I voted for the Lib Dems in the last election on the sole basis that they were against the very idea of top-up fees and have remained so. Unfortunately, the Lib Dems have been long regarded as a 'wasted vote' or a 'joke party' for; however, in the weeks following Nick Clegg's excellent performance during the first Prime-Ministerial debate, they really have stepped up in the polls and Clegg is presenting himself as, potentially, a strong and capable leader.

Following the fees flashmob back in November, myself, Edd and a focus group considered promoting the Lib Dems and Green as viable 'block vote' options against Labour and the Tories, who would almost certain vie for higher top-up fees. However a blog by the former NUS President did bring an interesting fact to light; the specifics of Lib Dem plans to scrap tuition fees have never been publicly detailed. This is clearly no longer the case as their six point plan has been released.

The Lib Dems are also extremely proactive in promoting LGBTQ issues; the Liberal Youth Homophobia is Gay campaign is an excellent case in point, seeing as the LGBTQ has taken part in the campaign over the past four years without our famous barcrawls and I have incorporated many of the campaign points into my work as Officer. My older brother has been a member of the Lib Dems for the past six years and a local councillor in Guildford for the past three. In that time, he and the Lib Dems have worked to further LGBTQ equality and campaigning on LGBTQ issues.

A common concern with the Lib Dems is their relative inexperience, and worries that - like Labour - the promise to do away with top-up fees may never come to fruition. However, at this point we can only speculate and cite the experience of another party. Personally, I believe that this is an excellent vote for students and I will be voting for the Lib Dems next week.

The British National Party

I refuse to soil my blog by uploading and displaying the BNP logo here. I find the very idea of the party offensive and their views on homosexuality are disgusting:

"The BNP is not blinded or cowed by political correctness and recognises that homosexuality, which affects less than 2% of the population, is not the norm and that homosexual relationships do not produce offspring – essential to the survival of a people and a nation. We therefore believe in a policy of tolerance to all forms of adult sexuality, but homosexuality should not be promoted or encouraged."

It's vile, it's outmoded and it's not even plausible. Procreation has historically been used by conservative elements of society to condemn homosexuality as a threat to human survival. The same people, I might add, never bother to think about the problems presented by unsustainable population growth; apparently ignorant to the fact that there are roughly 6,817,900,000 human beings alive to day. Their "argument" also implies a requirement of all humans to bring children into the world regardless of circumstances or preferences; another perfect example of moronic BNP thinking.

The ideals of the BNP on racial issues and immigration - better described in Allan Ssesanga's corresponding blog post - bear strong resemblance to the process of "Germanisation" in the prelude to WW2 and the Holocaust. Nick Griffin tries poorly to defend himself against Nazi associations by citing an ancestor who fought in WW2, as if that fact removes the obvious parallels between BNP and Nazi ideologies. His "defence" does nothing but dishonour the memory and sacrifice of this ancestor and all those who fought and died alongside him, and the BNP's continuing use of WW2 footage - as the backbone of their campaign, no less - is sickening.

It all paints a clear picture; the BNP are nothing but a gang of fearful, angry, small-minded thugs who are appealing to people on the grounds of hatred and fear that are unwelcome in this day and age. Despite this - and Nick Griffin's pathetic "I'm a victim of the other parties" position - the current government respects their right to free speech and allows them a place on local and national media. Ask yourselves this: if the BNP were in power, would they be so liberal?

Green

I approve of the Green Party's LGBT-friendly policies; they're relevant, clearly progressive and quite sincere. In many ways it's a shame that they're not a mainstream party.

UKIP

I'm not going to lie; everytime a UKIP leaflet comes through my door, I read it for no more than a few seconds, then decide to recycle it. In fact, for this reason, I have moved the paper recycling box so it is now RIGHT next to the front door to save me time and energy. The last leaflet I read spoke out against the "myth of global warming", mainly through supposition and obscure research, and promoted their simple-minded "one culture for all" ideology that screams intolerance.

I'm also somewhat concerned over the number of recent articles regarding UKIP's views on homosexuality. In one case, UKIP's Southend West candidate spoke of the party's plan to scrap gay equality laws in the name of "allowing people to act in accordance with their faith"; I'm sure I don't need to spell out the underlying meaning. Another case of former UKIP member Aiden Rankin - who joined after losing patience with the uber-PC crowd - reported that the party primarily consisted of "bigots who hated foreigners, gays and Muslims". Suffice it to say, they don't seem to have the interests of the LGBTQ community in mind.

Overall

That's all I really have to say to my constituents. Although I'd like to think you will consider what I've said when casting your vote, just remember that these are my opinions and my reflections and I have hopefully delivered them with minimal bias. Above all, think for yourself; vote for a party that will deliver for you, for students and for the LGBTQ community.

Campaign to stop homophobic and sexist N-Dubz appearance at Pride

2010-04-28T23:52:00.001+01:00

A colleague from BCU LGBT has asked me to promote information about a campaign they are running, hopefully with the support of all Coalition partners.

The Gale has invited the London-originated hip-hop band N-Dubz to headline Birmingham Pride this year. Some of their songs have been criticised in the past by prominent figures such as Peter Tatchell, who raised concerns about homophobic, biphobic and sexist lyrics. As an obvious affront to everything gay pride stands for, the LGBTQ community must make a stand against it.

As our involvement in Pride this year will be a joint Coalition effort, it's important that Birmingham LGBTQ supports BCU LGBT in this campaign. Please join the Facebook group and sign their petition!

UoB hosting third Prime Ministerial Debate!

2010-04-28T23:43:00.001+01:00

It's true; the University of Birmingham is hosting the third and final Prime Ministerial Debate between leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties! The debate will take place tomorrow in the Aston Webb Great Hall and will be televised live in Joes starting at 8:30PM.

Join the Guild of Students in showing that students DO care about politics, that students WILL be voting in this election, and politicians SHOULD be listening! Pick up a Vote for Students t-shirt from the Guild tomorrow or simply wear pink whilst going about your daily tasks on campus!

The BBC will have a big screen on the Rugby Pitches from 12pm, and we will be showing the debate live in Joe’s from 8.30pm! Sign up to the NUS Vote for Students campaign at to find out if your candidates have pledged to vote against a rise in tuition fees if voted into parliament. Expect lots of media attention about the student vote, and have a great day!

The involved role of a liberation officer

2010-04-28T02:00:00.013+01:00

Ever wondered why almost everything I do involves the LGBTQ Association in some way? How almost every blog involves what I'm doing with them, or what they're doing in general?

It's simple. "I scratch their back, they scratch mine".

The 09/10 Committee...

The Association and I share the same goals, namely, the representation and welfare of LGBTQ students at Birmingham.
I'm mandated to work with the LGBTQ Association, among others.
I occupy a place on the LGBTQ committee.
The LGBTQ Association is better equipped to run events/campaigns.
The Guild can assist the LGBTQ with campaigns by ensuring the necessary resources are available; as the Officer I serve as liason in this relationship.

...and the 10/11 successors.

Being involved in the Association - particularly the Wednesday coffee afternoons - keeps me in contact with my constituents.
I like the LGBTQ committee - old and new. They're motivated, proactive and creative and a pleasure to work with.
On a somewhat-selfish note, I'm a final year undergraduate M.Eng. student. I had to drop off the map as my final year project work and the ensuing dissertation became more of a priority; keeping the committee informed and involved means that they - and the Officer-Elect - could cover me as I locked myself away working.

Officer and Co-Chair

A little known fact is that the LGBTQ Officer is also co-convenor (co-chair) of the LGBTQ Committee, according to Guild Bye-Law 7, section 8.8.15. I was surprised to find that out too, however that relationship has never been particularly well defined; something that has caused problems over the past three years.

This is not uncommon with liberation associations in the Guild; Allan is co-chair of BEMA, same with Simon and PGMSA and so on and so forth.

When I last caught up an old friend and the 2006/07 chairperson, he mentioned that the relationship between Officer and Chair, and their respective areas of authority and responsibility, have never been well defined. Why the need to actually define it within the constitution hasn't occurred to anyone else in the past few years completely escapes me.

The way it's worked this year is that the Chair is directly responsible for managing the committee and the Officer handles the Guild's side of things. There is a level of redundancy on both sides, allowing the other to take over temporarily if one becomes unavailable. However, there were no real guidelines to work with. So, to address this issue, I will be working with the LGBTQ Committee over the coming weeks towards rewriting the LGBTQ constitution - for the second time this year, no less - to better define the roles of each committee member and the officer's co-chair status. It also needs to be updated with specific roles and responsibility of other committee positions (especially since ICP is not defined at all) following the recent AGM.

This should hopefully serve as a useful reference for Emma/Dan, and all future LGBTQ Officers and Chairpersons. A better-defined officer/chair/committee structure helps ensure that the association is run more efficiently and, by extension, our ability to campaign on LGBTQ issues and improve welfare for our students is greatly improved.

Second self-evaluation

2010-04-23T22:10:00.001+01:00

I've been LGBTQ Officer for 8 months and 23 days. My successor has been elected and has been shadowing me ever since to ensure a smooth takeover in August; so far it is going very well. However, I have no intention of absolving myself of responsibilities until my term ends and I am still accountable to the students I was elected to represent.

So although it's been some time since the last time I did this, I've completed a second self-evaluation of my work as officer against my original manifesto. Click here to view it.

I could use some critique from my constituents and colleagues; please please please post them on this blog.

Project Negative Blood Bank Demonstration

2010-04-23T20:19:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember my "Give Blood Because We Can't" campaign back in Freshers' week. The National Blood Service since initiated a policy review which I mentioned in my post-October Guild Council post, which began with a forum to which members of the NUS LGBT campaign were invited. The forum brought forth several proposals, including a five-year ban on gay/bisexual men, rather than a lifetime-ban imposed under the current policy. Although this was just as unacceptable, it indicates that they're under enough pressure to make some kind of fair concession.

In light of this review, Give Blood Because We Can't became an ongoing awareness campaign, as action campaigning is pointless while a decision is still being made. That being said, this review will conclude this summer; conveniently, after a general election has taken place. The LGBTQ community must make it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate any attempts to retain the current, outmoded and downright homophobic policy; regardless of how many right wing officials are elected to power.

Project Negative are holding a protest outside the Birmingham Blood Donation Center on Tuesday, 5th May, 5PM - 7PM. We'll be going as a group and meeting at University Station between 4:15 and 4:30 to get there with plenty of time. If you're able, please come along and show your support!

Back on the grid

2010-04-20T08:50:00.003+01:00

Done and dusted - yay!

My blog has been sadly neglected throughout April as I've spent the better part of the last few weeks worrying about my project dissertation. But, that's out of the way, I've napped for many hours, and I'm back on the grid once more.

NUS Elections

Following the prescribed nomination and elections rules set out, these were held online using a prototype voting system I developed myself. Although this is a prototype, it seemed to work well for the purpose of selecting NUS delegates. For anyone that's interested, the technical documentation is available below (click here or on the image to load).

This election was handled by a subcommittee consisting of myself (Officer), Officer-Elect, Chairperson and two other LGBTQ committee members for the purposes of enforcing oversight and a level of accountability. The newly elected ICP was With elections now finished, this subcommittee has disbanded and I thank them for the time they generously gave.

The success of the online voting has been lauded by several parties but there were a number of problems. The first was that the voting took place in the Easter holidays (which, ironically, necessitated development of this system in the first place) and availability wasn't particularly great. Sometimes I forget that atheism does not exclude others from partaking in Easter. The second was an ongoing problem with the mailing list and availability. Following some investigation I would like to clarify that the mailing list was reset this year; this will be dealt with over the coming weeks (watch this space).

Elected NUS Delegates

Based on the election results - and the NUS delegate rules - the confirmed delegation for the 2010 NUS LGBT Conference is as follows:

Open Place Delegates: Matthew Ward, Daniel Guzman, Robert Unwin
Women Delegates: Emma Cooper, Sarah Green
Black/Ethnic Minority Delegate: Kitten Camilla Onwordi
Trans Delegate: Kai Weston

Runners up for this election (Michael Lapham, Dan Doherty, Sam Hampton and Caitlin Horne) will occupy observer spots if funding allows.

Just a quick note; Myself, Emma Cooper and Daniel Guzman - as current Officer, Officer-Elect and Chairperson respectively - were given default places at conference that were not subject of elections, as this is essential to the successful running of the LGBTQ Association and term of the LGBTQ Officer for the foreseeable future. This was my decision and, although I realise it doesn't exactly look democratic I hold full responsibility for it; if anyone has any questions or wishes to scrutinise this decision please contact me and/or bring it up at the next Guild Council.

Teething

The new committee are gradually adjusting to their new roles; myself and Kitten are still training certain members in our respective areas (for my part, Officer-Elect, ICP and Secretary). This will continue over the first week of term but we are intending to put together fundraising events as soon as possible. Again, watch this space.

"The only way to fight hate...is with more hate!"

2010-04-16T23:00:00.002+01:00

RedBrick released an article on November regarding a proposal by the EHRC to include sexuality in the national census. RedBrick contacted me for comment, which I eventually - other commitments aside - provided as a comment on the online article. This issue has come up a number of times this year and there's a strong feeling (and frankly, ironically fascist) prevailing view that there is only one corrent opinion on the matter.

This proposed measure - which I regard as immature and in need of serious refinement (as I said in my comment) - is another instance of attempting to solve the problems of society with positive discrimination i.e. pedastooling a category of people who have been historically oppressed. While, in theory, it's a viable short-term solution which encourages minority participation and forces greater diversity, it's an extremely artificial measure of adjusting demographics that is not viable in the long term. Labour-dominated organisations such as the NUS and (to a lesser extent) the Guild and the LGBTQ Association over the past few years seem to believe that it is.

First and foremost, employing positive discrimination as a long-term solution presupposes that a certain minority (LGBTQ being a keen example) is consistently oppressed and will remain oppressed for the rest of time; therefore they deserve ongoing special treatment. However, it's easy to lose perspective over time and we have to take a step back and ask ourself "why did we want this in the first place?"

Are we looking for payback? Do we feel that majority groups must suffer as we [once] did?
Do we quietly enjoy the extra attention we receive from society, and do we want to continue to continue exploiting it?
Are we so afraid of history repeating itself that letting go of this special treatment will restore the oppression we suffered before?
Is using "the historical oppression and misrepresentation of one group" a convenient cover for why - as an example - there is less involvement from women than men in a certain group?

Let's not kid ourselves; positive discrimination is a balancing act and often breeds resentment among majority groups. They are made to feel powerless and as if they are being punished for the transgressions of others "like them" throughout history. It also encourages minority groups to retain their own resentment and ultimately perpetuates this endless segregation, which is hardly conducive to achieving equality in society.

Admittedly, one could argue that positive discrimination is part of the reason that the LGBTQ Officer position exists. I'd quite willingly accept that argument, even if it does put the viability of my job into question, and instinctively I'd try and defend it. ;) In my mind, LGBTQ support is more about being there for people who feel isolated in a decreasingly heteronormative society, but aims to give them what they need to accept who they are within society; not to segregate themselves in isolated groups. Myself and the Officer team attempted to convey the importance of such non-segregation with the LGBTQ housing issue last year. The naive idealist in me hopes that, one day, sexuality and gender equality will evolve to the point where an LGBTQ Officer and Association are unnecessary.

Since stating these views on this particular RedBrick article, I have been attacked by several Labour advocates on campus and in the NUS who seem to believe that their view is the only correct view...confident that they are given the "divine right" by the fact that the government they support is currently in power - and I stress "currently". I hasten to add that some of these reactions have been nothing but nasty and spiteful, and hardly deserving of consideration, but the sheer numbers of student who submit to these attitudes is deeply concerning.

Matthew Shepherd, tragic victim of a homophobic hate crime.

I believe that everyone should have a fair and equal chance to succeed in life, regardless of race, sexuality, gender, ailment or any other such irrelevant factor. If we respond to discrimination by discriminating in the other direction, so to speak, we may never overcome the borders of segregation.

The oppression suffered by LGBTQ people, ethnic minorities, women and disabled students - particularly in the past - was unacceptable. The oppression we are still - to some extent - subject to from certain groups is unacceptable. This oppression has manifested itself in some horrific tragedies over the last few decades and it is our duty to see that that they are never repeated. This is, after all, why we have liberation, but just remember that the point is to ensure equality for all; not battle for the supremacy of one group over others.

Nominations for NUS LGBT Delegates now open!

2010-03-31T14:00:00.020+01:00

If you're interested in being a delegate or observer for NUS LGBT Conference, nominations are now open! Please submit a manifesto to nus-delegate-elections@lgbtq.co.uk before next Monday 12PM.

Although funding is still somewhat of an issue, we presently have four delegate and two observer spots to fill in addition to myself, the LGBTQ Officer-Elect and the newly elected chairperson.

Nominations will close on Monday 12PM, at which point online elections will begin. Remember the voting link will be sent via the LGBTQ mailing list, so if you're not on the list please contact or the committee secretary ASAP! xD

NUS Delegate Elections

2010-03-28T22:55:00.010+01:00

I've received a significant number of complaints about this in such a short time, so I'm going to clarify exactly what is going on with delegate elections for upcoming NUS LGBT Conference.

Due to a miscommunication, an impromptu vote was held on Wednesday during which most of the delegate positions were mixed up, as was who goes as the "current" officer, and the issue of how many people we can send (due to funding) has not yet been confirmed. This took place without my prior knowledge and without notice because of concerns that the Association would miss the deadline...which the NUS - in their infinite wisdom - have not bothered to disclose to any constituent Unions.

In any case I would like to sincerely apologise to all LGBTQ students on campus for this incident, especially those who were present on Wednesday.

Election to be re-held online

In any case, I have declared the Wednesday election as officially invalid and have made the following alternative voting arrangements:

An elections subcommittee has been formed of myself, the LGBTQ Officer-Elect and the newly elected Chairperson. The Secretary and one Open Place committee member (also recently elected) hold places on this subcommittee for oversight and accountability.
From 12PM on Wednesday 31st March, a 5-day nomination period will begin. Potential candidates, please submit your nominations to nus-delegate-elections@lgbtq.co.uk and you will receive a notice of confirmation with 24 hours of sending your nomination. I'd recommend a manifesto, like this really old one, describing to LGBTQ students why you'd make a good delegate and how you could contribute to Conference.
Nominations will close at 12pm on Monday, 5th April at which time a 3-day voting period will begin. This will take place online and every member of the LGBTQ mailing list will receive a unique voting link via email.
Voting will close at 12PM on Thursday, 8th April. Results will be announced over the following weekend.

Why online?

Normally I and the Chair would arrange an Emergency General Meeting (EGM), but with it now being the Easter holidays, rallying a sufficient number of students is nigh-impossible. Besides, we've always seemed to have better luck with our online communications this year :P

Why the mailing list?

The Guild operates an "autonomous liberation" policy in which only people that, through self-definition, fall under a particular category (i.e. ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, women). This is to ensure that the only the people who will be affected by an election in the long-term are allowed to vote for it; outside interference can be extremely disruptive to that end.

Every year, during the Guild Officer elections, this policy is flagrantly abused and liberation officer elections are disrupted into becoming a popularity contest. Using our mailing list gives us a greater assurance that LGBTQ students are the ones voting and gives us the added benefit of being able to prevent duplicate votes; uniquely identifying voters by their email address. I know it's not exactly foolproof, but it's a hell of a lot more reliable, accurate and far reaching than general meetings or the previous attempt at voting for delegates.

If you are an LGBTQ student and you're not on the mailing list, please contact either myself/the Officer-elect or the committee's secretary before voting begins to get yourself registered! As always, all information is treated as confidential.

Elections fun!

2010-03-21T11:55:00.070Z

The Guild of Students Officer elections are all over and done with and Emma Cooper has been elected as LGBTQ Officer for the 2010/11 academic year. 1,214 students have made an excellent choice and I would like to congratulate Emma on her election. As for the 289 students who somehow felt that RON was a better choice, well...jog on, basically.

As with all of the new officers, Emma takes office on 1st August 2010 after my term as Officer ends. However, in the first few days following the announcement of results, Emma stood in for me while I was locked away completing my final year project and has done an amazing job, on top of her good work on the LGBTQ Committee over the past year no less. This bodeswell for the year to come :D

I'd also like to congratulate all of the newly elected officers - particularly Johnny Davis for making Guild history as the first re-elected Sabb!

Elections of 2010/11 LGBTQ Committee

Myself and Kitten also held the Annual General Meeting of the LGBTQ Association last Thursday, 17th March. Knowing that I would be more-or-less gone next year, and that the Association has become somewhat dependent on my technical abilities to maintain our online media, I pushed through a motion to create an Information, Communication and Publicity Officer position on the LGBTQ committee.

My relatively crappy report on campaigns and projects was easily dwarfed by Kitten's well-prepared PowerPoint presentation - our way of satisfying constitutional requirements of committee reports. In both cases, we had an opportunity to report on the successes and failures of this year to our members and committee candidates.

After listening to nomination speeches, distributing ballets and counting votes, we announced the election winners who are the new LGBTQ Committee:

Dan Guzman Chair	Andy Roche Secretary	Rob Unwin Treasurer	John Chivers ICP
Christian White Open Place	Katherine Johnson Open Place	Sarah Green Open Place	Caitlin Horne Open Place
	Sarah Perry Guild Councillor	Dan Doherty Guild Councillor

A lot of these were elected unanimously; congrats to all in any case :)

I will retain my co-chair position on the committee with Emma shadowing until the 1st August at which point Emma will take over.

Midlands BIGay Night Out Charity Event

2010-03-16T19:59:00.001Z

Lee Pitchford, manager of Missing bar in the Birmingham Gay Village is pleased to present the Midlands BIGay Night Out on Saturday, 27th March. This event is a charity fundraiser and all proceeds will goto ABPlus and Cancer Research UK - two very worthwhile charities - so please come along and show your support.

Coaches are picking up from the city centres of Stoke on Trent, Wolverhampton, Derby, Coventry, Nottingham, Walsall, Telford, Sheffield, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster Northampton, Leicester, Burton, Cannock, Manchester and Gloucester. Coach tickets are only £10, cover the outbound and return trips and are available to buy online - click here!

Coach ticket holders get:

Cheap return travel to Birmingham!
Fun and games on the coach!
Barcrawl to 5 venues; fun, games and drink offers!
£4 off entry to DV8
£2 off entry to the Gale
£2 off entry to Chic

I'm advertising this event to LGBTQ students at the University of Birmingham as well as our Coalition partners and the Midlands LGBT* student population at large. It's for a good cause so please come along!

LGBTQ Staff Launch

2010-03-08T20:29:00.000Z

On Wednesday 3rd March I was invited to attend the LGBTQ Staff Network launch event at Staff House. Literally, right after taking part in Edd's Naked Day of Action, no less. Thankfully, in spite of having a good view of the library, no one at the staff launch saw it. Or so they claim...but I digress.

The event was a huge success; around 30 or so staff members attended. The event began with a 15 minute meet-and-greet which allowed guests to mingle and nom on free food, before a welcome speech by David Mair of the Counselling and Guidance Service.

This was then followed by a warm speech by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. David Eastwood, who gave a well-improvised speech about the issue of workplace discrimination and ingrained, old-fashioned views on sexuality.

After that, I was invited to give a speech on "lessons learned from the student experience". I took the opportunity to talk about my experience as a bisexual student AND my issues of LGBTQ discrimination in my working life, leading onto the point of "what the staff group could become" and how the LGBTQ Association could help them towards that end.

David then presented research/surveying carried out since previous meetings, which strongly indicated that the staff group would focus more towards social and support rather than active campaigning.

The staff group would never have been possible were it not for the tireless efforts of David Mair from C&G, Jane Tope and Susan Squire from E&D to name a few. I look forward to working with them for the rest of my term as Officer and helping them develop this into a good support network for LGBTQ staff.

National Student Pride

2010-03-06T08:47:00.017Z

National Student Pride takes place today in Brighton - don't miss it.

That being said I'm stuck at home finishing off my final year project - don't let me stop you from enjoying the fun ;)

University is often the time people come out and although the LGBTQ support offered at student unions/guilds is substantial, some people can still struggle to come to terms with their sexuality. This event - in conjunction with the NUS promotes the continuation of strong LGBTQ presence through activism, representation and support and encourages LGBTQ students to take pride who they are, and the huge step they took in coming out to friends and family.

I'm off to Gatecrasher!

2010-03-05T20:30:00.001Z

Before you ask: no, I'm not using my blog to report on my social life. This relates to my recent blog post about homophobia in clubs (backdated to February, as I started and half-completed it then).

Although I'm of the impression that it's a shithole, my buzzard-of-a-housemate (pictured above with me) turns 22 tomorrow, and he's quite fond of Gatecrasher. We shall be going there later.

Since I have been unable to obtain some kind of statement from people who have complained about instances of bouncers being homophobic there, I figured this is a perfect opportunity to see for myself what is actually happening at this student-frequented club. When it comes to campaigns, I normally encourage our more active members to join in. But, homophobia *can* come in the form of physical violence and I'd be extremely negligent if I asked you to subject yourself that risk ;) Only I shall bear the consequences of my crazy-ass plans

Enjoy whatever plans you may have for Friday night, people :)

Sexual Health supplies for LGBTQ Students

2010-02-28T18:24:00.072Z

Citizens, rejoice! Your LGBTQ Officer stands on high, playing track 3! And has solved the sexual health supply shortage.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the lack of sexual health supplies available to LGBTQ students in my first January blog. In the blog I mentioned that sexual health had become a neglected area of focus, although later that month I tweeted about the problems I was having acquiring them from local sexual health clinics.

The main problem is that the Labour government - in it's "infinite wisdom" has mandated sexual health charities to collect age/gender/ethnicity statistics on those who use condoms. Since neither myself, nor the LGBTQ Association hold no such information from our members (only an email address for the mailing list, and optionally so), this was obviously out of the question.

Building up the LGBTQ-Controlled supply

However, suspecting that the Guild of Students would have access to said information AND considers sexual health a priority issue for students, I contacted the VPW, Johnny Davis (pictured left). He was good enough to provide us with a supply of condoms from Brook; a charity that supplies condoms from the ARC. Thanks, Johnny!

So the crisis was abated. I have made these condoms available on request in the LGBTQ Room; please speak to myself or a committee member or attend a Wednesday Coffee Afternoon and ask there.

Additional supplies of condoms and lube have also been procured and donated to the LGBTQ thanks to regular active member John Chivers (pictured right, swimming in condoms and promoting sexual health with the caption ^_^). Again, contact myself or the committee as with the condoms. The LGBTQ Association considers the sexual health of it's members high-priority and are committed to upholding it.

Other sources of safe-sex packs

Supplies of condoms and lube are also available through the Guild's Advice and Representation Centre (ARC), supplied by the afore-mentioned charity Brook are available; just ask at the ARC for a form and they will direct you appropriately.

Health Gay Life also provide packs of up to 12 condoms per person; again, you will have to order but you can order online and receive via post.

Sexual Health Information

Keep your eyes peeled over the coming weeks; the support pages on the LGBTQ Website shall see a few new subpages dedicated to sexual health. They *might* initially manifest themselves as a copy of this blog, but it's not like *everyone* reads my ramblings.

LGBTQ (committee and up-and-comings) swimming in condoms. Fun times xD

Homophobia in Clubs

2010-02-27T16:21:00.023Z

Not. Happening.

Last week, while teching at one of the LGBTQ events I was informed by a student that she and her girlfriend had encountered an instance of homophobia from the bouncers at Gatecrasher, at one of the "Loaded" nights - supported, promoted and essentially run by the Guild.

This kind of thing has happened before (in Gatecrasher; two friends of mine - lesbians in a committed relationship - told off for kissing and warned that they would be thrown out if they continued. In that instance, myself and Kitten became rather concerned, but I was personally asked not to follow it up. Those involved believed it was an isolated incident.

In this latest instance, well, it was pretty much the same thing. Although it was quite obvious that straight couples kissing was perfectly acceptable. The two obvious concerns here are:

The bouncers are actively engaging in homophobia; whether or not it is sanctioned by the management remains in question.
This is an ongoing problem, as evidenced by multiple occurances.

Since raising this with our members and committee at a recent LGBTQ coffee afternoon, people have since raised more instances of homophobia occuring at Urban Village, Risa and more instances at Gatecrasher. I'm deeply disturbed that these events are not being reported to myself, the LGBTQ or the Guild; no one has to take this lying down. That's kind of the point of LGBTQ representation.

Don't accept it as a fact of life

Due to personal events occuring over the past week I have been unable to follow this up. If the student who brought this up could get in touch with me and provide some sort of statement, that would be awesome :)

I also urge any students who encounter homophobia, biphobia or transphobia in clubs to report it to me (m.ward@guild.bham.ac.uk); it's one of the reasons I'm here. Any information you give will be treated with the utmost confidence and no names need be given.

HIG4 Postponed until 12th March

2010-02-25T12:47:00.000Z

As you may or may not be aware from the million and two notifications flinging around on Facebook, the fourth annual Homophobia is Gay barcrawl had to be postponed to Friday 12th March from the original date of Friday 26th February due to lack of funding - an ongoing problem this year; the event relied entirely on a sufficient number oof tickets being sold by Mon 22nd Feb.

Myself and the LGBTQ committee sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, and would like to assure anyone that has brought a ticket that it is still valid for the rescheduled barcrawl.

For more information, please read this post on the LGBTQ Website.

Guild Council is a forum for University students, not a playground

2010-02-16T18:55:00.000Z

I hope that this blog post having a *slightly* friendlier title than the EEO's controversial blog following December GC means that you'll at least read the entire thing before issuing me a censure at any upcoming sessions of Guild Council.

The EEO made a very good point in his blog. Some, luckily very few, Guild Councillors - elected to represent a constituency comprising any number of students - are neglecting their roles and using Guild Council to spite other officers and other Councillors based on a personal dislike, and making rather childish, apathetic comments whenever the opportunity arises. This was the point that Edd was trying to make on the "offending blog" but most did not read past the controversial title.

As some of you know, I posted two comments on this blog entry defending Edd's point of focus and asking that readers look past the undiplomatically-worded title Edd assigned to it. I hasten to add that the Sabbs did sanction Edd and demand that the post be removed, and I was told off for publicly defending him. I stand by my decision, because in my mind there are three issues that are a matter of concern for the Guild Officer Group and Guild Council in general:

Renouncing certain issues i.e. ethical and environmental as "irrelevant", for no reason other than apathy.
Moaning about discussion of so-called "right-wing motions" that are so popular at our Guild Council sessions, rather than striving to follow the politically proactive example set by their proposers.
Worst of all; bypassing Guild policy and inventing evidence to attempt to remove an officer that many in Guild Council simply do not like.

"Irrelevant" issues

In December Guild Council, one councillor spoke up and openly questioned the relevance - indeed, the point of the Guild pursuing environmental and ethical issues. Somehow the focal goals of the Guild, as stated by Fabian, had been accepted as "exclusive" and all other concerns were therefore irrelevant. As I stated in my comment on the offending blog, ethical concerns are a huge issue in the workplace and organisations are under pressure to acknowledge and address environmental concerns (i.e. the 10:10 campaign). Hence, these issues will affect all Birmingham students in their future careers; a fact that was conveniently overlooked by the councillors in question. The students we represent, at the very least, deserve a *little* more foresight and a lot less apathy. Guild Councillors, please consider that.

Repeated arising of "right-wing motions"

I've said it before and I'll say it again; Edd is easily the most proactive non-sabb we've had. Although I understand the justification behind both censures issued against him, I've never liked how it brings him down to the same level as negligent officers. To my memory he proposes - or at least actively supports - ethical and environmental motion each month which are discussed at Guild Council. Again, one councillor, speaking for a vote of no-confidence (which I shall rant about in more detail shortly), made a rather childish remark about Guild Council being sick of having to deal with E&E motions at every single session.

Frankly, I take that fact that I've only ever really had my name down as a seconder on motions as a matter of personal shame. I have attempted to propose three however two were considered operational and the other was an amendment to the LGBTQ constitution that was passed down to Student Groups Committee. Rather than moaning about having to deal with such motions, perhaps we should strive to be more proactive, political, pragmatic and representative ourselves? If that seems too much to ask, then it's best to not bother running for Guild Councillor positions; open up the spot for a representative your constituents deserve.

Illegal vote of no confidence

If you attended January GC you'll know about this...if not, then the letter I wrote to the Independent Chairs this afternoon summarises it quite well:

Dear Independent Chairs,

I writing to formally protest the vote of no-confidence held against EEO Edd Bauer on the afore-mentioned session of Guild Council.

If you recall, Edd was issued another censure for his blog post of Sunday, 13th December, 2009 and it’s rather controversial title. It was widely believed that this made a total of three censures against the EEO, however I could only recall this one, and the one issued in October GC. A Guild Councillor asked yourselves to clarify on the circumstances behind all three censures and you only provided two. I highlighted this fact myself when I gave a speech against the vote of no confidence and I was assured that there were three, and that “you had checked” with no specifics. The vote then went ahead.

At the last meeting of GOG (Wednesday, 10th February, 2010), I made enquiries and VPDR Tom Guise reported that there is in fact evidence of only two censures against the EEO. So, the simple fact is that this vote should NEVER gone ahead in the first place. It’s no secret that a great many Guild Councillors do not like Edd – and, admittedly, both censures were given with good reason – but the personal feelings of Guild Councillors should NEVER have such an overwhelming effect on Guild politics.

As such I shall be bringing this to light at the upcoming Guild Council session this Thursday and asking that a public apology be made to the EEO for this illegal attempt at removing him from office.

Best regards,

Matt Ward
LGBTQ Officer
University of Birmingham Guild of Students

The entire Guild Officer Group was copied into this email.

Fabian has kindly assured me that an apology will be made to Edd (no less than two minutes after I sent out that email - true dedication right there :D) and I look forward to hearing it at Guild Council this Thursday; an important step in resolving this issues once and for all.

The Pope's understanding of "Natural Law"

2010-02-09T19:17:00.000Z

As some of you may be aware, there has been a great deal of media coverage on the Pope's recent attack against the equalities bill with a "missionary zeal". Said coverage will attest to the fact that the Pope's is mainly concerned with restricting religious organisations' right to "act in accordance with their beliefs". Specifically, to exclude women and homosexuals.

The Pope, when addressing Cardinals and Bishops of the UK, lauded the UK's firm commitment to equality and opportunity for all, however described the equality of homosexuals as a "violation of natural law"_[src]. However, restricting the right of people to express themselves in accordance with their beliefs is debatable, when such "beliefs" are twisted to justify AND mandate persecution and discrimination of a particular group. This kind of archaic thinking does not belong in the 21st century.

So here we have a classic case of one groups' rights infringing on those of another group; conflicting in such an aggressive and militant fashion, there can be no satisfactory resolution. However I've always believed that compromise can be found between two groups so vehemently opposed. It's simple. Anyone who has seen the Spiderman films may recall the rather cheesy quote:

"With great power comes great responsibility."

Rights are, in a sense, a form of power (better worded as empowerment) and I do believe that each right ensues an equal amount of responsibility - in the case of equal rights, one is responsible for respecting the right of others to equality. The "right" of more conservative religious groups to believe what they want to believe is nothing but an excuse for biggotry, and is a violation of their responsibilities as human beings.

This is hardly the first controversial move made by Benedict XVI in the name of "natural law". Last year, he was heavily criticised for his claims that condoms would make the African AIDS crisis worse. He claimed that the distribution of condoms aggravated the problem rather than helped to combat the spread of these viruses. Of course when he elaborated further, he was clearly advocating celibacy as an alternative and - while there's nothing inherently wrong with advocating celibacy - enforcing it through this kind of scare-mongering among third world countries is immoral and sickening.

It's no secret that Catholic church teachings have historically condemned the very idea of artificial contraception, but the issue of HIV and AIDS have kinda made this a grey area in which more progressive Christian sects are thinking rationally. The Pope, however, has taken this to a whole new level with his highly fascist approach.

This is a direct threat to the work that myself, the LGBTQ and the Chaplaincy have been doing towards combatting the archaic religion vs. sexuality ideal, and the Pope claiming to speak in "the name of God" is an utter offence to students of faith at Birmingham (LGBTQ or otherwise). I urge LGBTQ students, activits within the LGBTQ Association and - more importantly - followers of all Christian denominations to join me in condemning the Pope's outmoded statements, conservative stance and underhanded tactics.

History Month is here!

2010-02-01T12:15:00.000Z

LGBT History Month is finally here! The LGBTQ Association and our West Midlands LGBT Coalition partners are putting on a series of events to celebrate LGBTQ history.

More information is available at:

coalition.lgbtq.co.uk

If anyone's able to show up there is an opening ceremony at Coventry University this evening at 6:30PM. I'm heading over from Uni station just before 5 if anyone wants to come along for an unofficial and adventurous mooch.

Holocaust Memorial Day

2010-01-27T19:06:00.000Z

Today is the ninth annual Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, a day commemorating the millions who were killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

The Guild and JSoc held an event yesterday in the Guild Council Chambers at which a Holocaust survivor was invited to tell her story. Due to University Commitments I was sadly unable to attend the event, however I'm told that it was a fitting memorial. It is essential that we honour the memory of the victims and and never forget the horror that was allowed to take place during this dark time in history. Among them were some six million Jews and some ten thousand LGBTQ people.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

The LGBTQ Association will be holding a discussion on the Holocaust - with particular focus to persecution of LGBTQ people - at the Wednesday Coffee Afternoon. The Association will be showing Paragraph 175 at the usual Sunday evening Film Night and would like to extend an invitation to all members of JSoc and members of the Jewish Community on campus.

If anyone is considering becoming the next LGBTQ Officer

2010-01-26T05:11:00.000Z

The Guild Elections season is rapidly approaching and some of you may be considering taking up a Sabbatical/Non-Sabbatical Officer position. Some of you may even be considering succeeding me as LGBTQ officer.

I am more than willing to advise anyone who is considering becoming the next LGBTQ Officer, and to provide general advice to anyone considering a non-sabbatical officer position as to what the experience is like and I can introduce you to the current officer for more details.

To that end, I will be at the LGBTQ Association's Wednesday Coffee Afternoon this week to talk about it and answer any questions.

Being an Officer...

...is, take it from me, one of the most worthwhile experiences of your life.

Being the LGBTQ Officer

The official description on the relevant Guild webpage says:

The LGBTQ Officer will work to further the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer students, supported by the Guild and University in working towards the social and academic equality of all students.

But it's a lot of work, BELIEVE me.

LGBTQ Officer Dos and Don'ts

I've knocked this up to give you a few hints that the entire Non-Sabbatical officer group all could have used when we took office last Summer. Feel free to ask me anything about this on Wednesday.

Do	Don't
Shadow the current LGBTQ Officer after you've been elected. Get to know the outgoing LGBTQ Chair and the LGBTQ Chair-elect after the AGM has taken place. Do the same with the LGBTQ committee. Report your representative efforts to the students you represent as much as possible (usually through blogging). Arrange a final handover date with the outgoing Officer in July. Try and attend an NUS LGBT Officer training event as soon as possible; the August ones prepare you for your role like nothing else. Also, network with fellow officers and keep in touch! Log some Guild time in the Summer; get to know the other Officers and establish a working relationship with them. Establish a good working relationship with the University; particularly E&D, the Counselling Service and the Staff LGBTQI as soon as possible. Contact local community LGBT* organisations as soon as possible and establish a good working relationship with them. Contact LGBT* societies/associations at local West Midlands Universities; see what you can do to help each other (this is why networking at NUS events is essential); also try and keep the West Midlands LGBT Coalition going; it's served us well for two years. Look at what your predecessors did well, what they left unfinished and where they went wrong LONG before you take office. Encourage safe space events with the LGBTQ Association and make sure you attend whenever possible; it's a good way to keep in touch with your constituents. Be seen, be heard; get your Officer t-shirt/hoody as soon as possible and wear it on campus; this often yields people who want to "come out" finding you on Facebook. Get involved with the LGBTQ Committee for the planning of Welcome Week as early as possible. Enjoy it and take pride in what you do; you get out of this job what you put into it.	Stand for election just for a joke; I will hunt down anyone that tries! :) Arbitrarily decide that you can't be bothered and neglect your role altogether; LGBTQ students deserve better. Do nothing over Summer - you take office in August; you are not exempt from your responsibilities because "it's the Summer Holidays". I cannot describe to you how much people doing this annoys me @_@ Expect the Guild to set things up for you; they are absolutely f***ing awful for this! You will discover very quickly that you must chase, chase, chase to get anything sorted out (take it as a measure of how proactive you are :P) Sit around expecting the Guild to induct you. I promise you, you'll be waiting a LONG time. Keep your distance from the LGBTQ Association; you HAVE to work closely with them in order to successfully fill your role. Represent only gay/lesbian students because you yourself are gay/lesbian. This has been a historic problem with Birmingham LGBTQ representation and I have crossbows intently prepared for such people. ;) Represent only your friends and/or people you like. The sad truth is you are going to hate some of your constituents before or while you're the Officer, but they're still entitled to your support. Violate safe spaces (good example, this year's Coffee/Befriending Afternoons) or the confidence of an LGBTQ student; sexuality carries a stigma of insecurity and uncertainty - you must set an example :)

Don't

Shadow the current LGBTQ Officer after you've been elected.

Get to know the outgoing LGBTQ Chair and the LGBTQ Chair-elect after the AGM has taken place.

Do the same with the LGBTQ committee.

Report your representative efforts to the students you represent as much as possible (usually through blogging).

Arrange a final handover date with the outgoing Officer in July.

Try and attend an NUS LGBT Officer training event as soon as possible; the August ones prepare you for your role like nothing else. Also, network with fellow officers and keep in touch!

Log some Guild time in the Summer; get to know the other Officers and establish a working relationship with them.

Establish a good working relationship with the University; particularly E&D, the Counselling Service and the Staff LGBTQI as soon as possible.

Contact local community LGBT* organisations as soon as possible and establish a good working relationship with them.

Contact LGBT* societies/associations at local West Midlands Universities; see what you can do to help each other (this is why networking at NUS events is essential); also try and keep the West Midlands LGBT Coalition going; it's served us well for two years.

Look at what your predecessors did well, what they left unfinished and where they went wrong LONG before you take office.

Encourage safe space events with the LGBTQ Association and make sure you attend whenever possible; it's a good way to keep in touch with your constituents.

Be seen, be heard; get your Officer t-shirt/hoody as soon as possible and wear it on campus; this often yields people who want to "come out" finding you on Facebook.

Get involved with the LGBTQ Committee for the planning of Welcome Week as early as possible.

Enjoy it and take pride in what you do; you get out of this job what you put into it.

Stand for election just for a joke; I will hunt down anyone that tries! :)

Arbitrarily decide that you can't be bothered and neglect your role altogether; LGBTQ students deserve better.

Do nothing over Summer - you take office in August; you are not exempt from your responsibilities because "it's the Summer Holidays". I cannot describe to you how much people doing this annoys me @_@

Expect the Guild to set things up for you; they are absolutely f***ing awful for this! You will discover very quickly that you must chase, chase, chase to get anything sorted out (take it as a measure of how proactive you are :P)

Sit around expecting the Guild to induct you. I promise you, you'll be waiting a LONG time.

Keep your distance from the LGBTQ Association; you HAVE to work closely with them in order to successfully fill your role.

Represent only gay/lesbian students because you yourself are gay/lesbian. This has been a historic problem with Birmingham LGBTQ representation and I have crossbows intently prepared for such people. ;)

Represent only your friends and/or people you like. The sad truth is you are going to hate some of your constituents before or while you're the Officer, but they're still entitled to your support.

Violate safe spaces (good example, this year's Coffee/Befriending Afternoons) or the confidence of an LGBTQ student; sexuality carries a stigma of insecurity and uncertainty - you must set an example :)

Normally I'd hyperlink most of that table, but I'd rather you research and ask me questions yourself ;)

That's all I can think of for now; heed my words of wisdom. xD Above all else, remember the struggles that you may have faced yourself as an LGBTQ student are likely faced by many others here at Birmingham; they - as much as you - deserve the right to a successful and enjoyably University experience, unfettered by something so trivial as sexuality. I strongly encourage you to run for this position and give this to them.

So get in touch!

So yeah, Wednesday 12-3 or email/Facebook me to arrange a time to have a coffee and a chat.

LGBTQ & Sci-Fi Film Evening

2010-01-26T02:28:00.000Z

That's this Friday coming; as the poster says, http://scifinight.lgbtq.co.uk/ has all the information.

Again, as the poster says, works of science fiction have contributed to the struggle for LGBTQ equality by drawing attention to the issues faced by LGBTQ people through analogy, or - as is the case with Doctor Who and Torchwood - illustrating a non-heteronormative world and smashing any natural audience expectations of heterosexual main characters.

I am helping with the running of this event; so whether or not you have a nerdy side, come along. It should be educational as well as entertaining.

Coalition love

2010-01-25T00:07:00.000Z

I hope everyone else is as glad as I am that the snow is gone. While it was nice to be proven wrong about the Xmas holiday weather in the UK for the first time in my life...I draw the line at having to smash icicles that have formed underneath my car.

Over the past few weeks, myself and Kitten have been working closely with LGBT* societies/associations at BCU, Aston, Warwick, Coventry and Wolverhampton Universities. In doing so we have truly resurrected the West Midlands Coalition of last year; a collaborative effort between the constituent Universities. In this case, we are looking specifically at LGBT History Month.

Initial Meeting with Cov and BCU

A couple of weeks back I invited Eddy Durnan, Campaigns Officer for BCU LGBT and Tom Fisher, LGBT+ Officer for Coventry University LGBT+ Society. I've worked with Eddy before, both at last NUS LGBT conference and the LGBT Officer training residential back in August; Tom is a close friend with whom I have been collaborating with on LGBT* work on a regular basis since October, during which time we've established a good working relationship.

Many thanks to the Guild receptionist who kindly agreed to take this photo.

This meeting took place during the LGBTQ regular coffee afternoon event, giving LGBTQ students a chance to feed into the plans we made. Each officer came away with a pretty good idea of what events we could collaborate on and how it would work. Namely:

Kitten's ingenious idea of renting out the IMax and showing Milk; between six Universities the costs should be negligible.
My proposal of each University LGBT* group hosting an event at their Union that the others can attend.
Homophobia is Gay 4 was an interesting one Kitten brought up; inviting students from other Uni's in the coalition is definitely a good way to ramp up the numbers.

Joint Events taking shape

Since that initial meeting, there have been two subsequent meetings (at which Wolverhampton and Aston have been disturbingly absent - looking into that IS on my todo list). As of the most recent meeting on Sunday, 24th January, we have decided on the following joint events:

Opening Ceremony to take place at Cathedral Square in Coventry, hosted by Coventry University LGBT+ on the evening of Monday, 1st February, 2010
Screening of Milk as mentioned above; however at this point the IMax is a lost cause. Kitten is currently negotiating a better deal with the Odeon. As it stands, this is going to take place in week 2 or 3 of History Month.
The Lib Dem Society event Homophobia is Gay 4 (mentioned in a recent post) will also extend to the other LGBT* societies/associations. This will take place in week 3 of History Month.
Warwick are running an event at Kelsey's bar in Leamington Spa.
Warwick will also be running workshops involving the making of clothes, makeup etc. They were quite vague at the meeting - more information to come as time goes on.
Gayday FlashMOB in a public area in the final week - this is to be organised by Warwick.
Still to yet to hear about finalised events from BCU; they sent apologies for the meeting in question.

UoB-specific Events

In addition to the events, I will be running a series of talks and workshops in the Guild, with the aid of speakers and professionals from the University, NUS LGBT and anyone else I can get! Specifically:

I'm hoping to run another Faith and Sexuality event with the Chaplaincy. Granted, my survey about the last event has received less responses than I envisioned, but I believe that it would make a valuable contribution to our celebration of History Month. I'm hoping to run this in Week 1/Week 2.
Dave Viney of the Birmingham LGBT Community Trust has offered to come in and give a talk on the LGBT Liberation Front. I'm hoping to arrange this for week 3/4.
I'm working on bringing together prominent figures in new staff LGBTQI - particularly E&D, Counselling/Guidance Service and Alumni staff to come in and discuss the issues faced by students while at University, the background behind the LGBTQI and the adversity that many LGBTQ people face in the workplace (furthering my pro-careers campaign). I'm hoping to run this in week 2/3.
Last - but certainly not least - a series of workshops on:
- Bisexuality - a PhD student and member of the LGBTQ Association has kindly offered to run a talk on this issue, as a focal point of PhD research.
- Trans issues - we're currently trying to arrange a speaker; at this point we're likely to simply book a speaker from the NUS LGBT
- Queer workshop - I've requested the NUS LGBT Black Students Rep to run this workshop.
I would like to use these workshops in Week 4 to wrap up History Month.

These events will supplement the recurring LGBTQ events, so coffee afternoons and film nights will resume as normal; however, there may be one or two instances where a workshop/talk takes place on a Wednesday. My next big job is risk assessments and freedom of speech forms.

In the spirit of co-operation I have invited the committees, officers and members to any event that we might just be happening to run. Every University LGBT society/association in the coalition has reaped great benefits from this initiative of co-operation. I have no doubt that continuing to work together in the future will yield the same results.

The Coalition calendar

Seeing as myself and the LGBTQ make extensive use of Google Calendar for events organisation, we've simply extended it to quickly and efficiently organise Coalition events. It's available at:

http://coalition.lgbtq.co.uk

"Give a man enough rope, and he'll hang himself"

2010-01-23T23:36:00.000Z

I have to say the Azzam Tamimi talk was interesting and illuminating. I had one or two objections to the outcome of that event so I felt the need to get my objections down on paper (or, failing that, on my blog).

I brought eight/nine volunteers from the LGBTQ Association. We were all there to listen, keep an open mind, ask questions and challenge anything controversial should it arise.

There were protesters from JSoc and supporters from the new Facebook group downstairs in University Centre holding signs just prior to the event. Furthermore, the students I spoke to provided the LGBTQ group with suggested challenging questions - some of them formed a chain of questions based on predictions of how the previous questions would be answered - clearly someone has a high midichlorian count ^_^

Theme and Premise

The ISoc head brother introduced the event by emphasising the value of every human life; this theme was reiterated throughout the event. The introduction moved onto the debasement of human life, specifically referring to the atrocities committed in Gaza, setting up a solid foundation for the first lecture.

After this introduction a lecture was given by Mr. Mike Cushman - an academic and self-confessed Jewish-born athiest, entitled "Siege and Occupation Reports at First Hand - reports from visits to Gaza and the West Bank" (the hyperlink has a recording of the same lecture, but given at another event). It's a very well-spoken and evocative presentation about the state of Gaza and the ongoing Israeli oppression - with particular focus on the latter throughout, but it is of course one side of the story.

Dr. Azzam Tamimi's Lecture

Dr. Tamimi was obviously very well-informed about the attempts to prevent him from speaking on campus - a problem he has encountered before. As such, the first half hour of the lecture was entitled "Am I a Jew-hater?" and insisted that his problem was with Zionists - a constantly recurring buzzword throughout the event, no less - he has many Jewish friends and colleagues who value his contributions (the presentation and speech provided evidence and silenced many critics).

Dr. Tamimi also insisted that he was a strong critic of Hamas, but argued that it was a legitimately elected power (albeit, he insisted that he among others objected to the forced, premature election). This led onto a very passionate and outspoken speech on the issue at hand, with a personal aspect to it (with Dr. Tamimi being a British Palestinian).

Ultimately the good doctor seemed to agree with my ethos of encouraging free speech; if there's a point of contention between two opposing points of view, "let's have a debate!", as he put it. Dr. Tamimi specifically encouraged Jewish students in particular to discuss any problem they might have (play the video below - I programmed it to skip to this quote). Now this is where things got interesting.

Q&A debacle

With both lectures finished, the ISoc host invited people to queue up at the microphones and pose a question to Mr. Cushman and/or Dr. Tamimi. Initially, there were very few people standing up (I for one was busy thinking of and writing up a question of my own) and the host took the opportunity to throw in a snidy comment about how the protesters from earlier were "clearly all talk and no action".

After a few questions here or there, a Jewish student angrily posed a strong question regarding the omissions of both presentations - specifically, that the Israeli government has begun an investigation into war crimes. The student then went on to label the conference and it's speakers as a extremist farse. To be completely honest I think it did go a bit over the top but I can certainly understand - lest we forget that the conference was clearly anti-Israel from the start; of course it was going to yield a pissed off question at some point. The "all talk no action" comment from the event's host practically goaded it.

Conveniently, the ISoc host decided that, after this question, there would be no more questions - which severely pissed me off because I had a question I spent five minutes preparing. A member of ISoc told me that if I wrote the question down with my name and reply email address, it would be emailed to Dr. Tamimi - but, "no promises". My question was, I felt, fair and legitimate:

For Dr. Azzam Tamimi
You were very passionate in your assertions that every human life is valuable. You have also stated that, although you believe that Hamas is a legitimately elected power, you are a strong critic of it's charter. Do you count the abhorrant - yet sanctioned - oppression of women, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people among these criticism?

Matthew David Ward
Guild of Students LGBTQ Officer

I did manage to speak to Mr. Cushman and pose my question to him. Obviously he couldn't speak for Dr. Tamimi, but he answered it by instead raising oppression of an attempted Israeli gay pride. I got the impression that a political question about Hamas somehow indicated that I was fanatically pro-Israel. Was that what this event was really about? To perpetuate this "one-or-the-other" adversarial mentality between Israel and Hamas?

I sincerely hope that this question does reach Dr. Tamimi and that he is able to respond, although I'm still annoyed that I missed a chance to ask face-to-face. In any case, my personal annoyances aside, the sequence of inviting questions, goading protesters and then deciding that endulging freedom of speech isn't worth it because of the inevitable result is hypocritical and vile.

The outcome of this event

Overall, I stand by my belief that letting Dr. Tamimi speak on campus was the right one; although there were concerns, he was certainly entitled to express himself through speech. Many attendees of that event reflected that right but - as evidenced by the Q&A - this gesture was hardly reciprocated. Members of ISoc who have proclaimed the event to be a huge success should consider how the Q&A debacle reflects very poorly on the event and, by extension, the society itself.

I would like to thank the members of the LGBTQ, Guild Officer Group, Lib Dem Society, Labour Students Society, BU Conservative Future and all others who came along, listened, and showed their support to the Jewish and Islamic communities on campus.

Our group made our own recording of the Dr. Tamimi's speech and the Q&A; once the video files have been processed I will comment on this post providing the hyperlink.

The right to free speech is not arbitrary

2010-01-20T09:01:00.000Z

As many of you know, a major issue this week is the controversy and concern caused by the University inviting Dr. Azzam Tamimi to speak on campus.

Dr. Tamimi was invited by ISoc as an academic and political activist to give a speech on their event, "In Pursuit of Justice: Remembering Gaza". The event aims to raise awareness of the atrocities committed by the Israeli military during the 2008 Israel/Gaza conflict and will take place today - Wednesday, 20th January, 2010 - at 5PM in the Avon Room, Staff House.

My involvement

Last week I was contacted by a member of JSoc who expressed strong concerns over Dr. Tamimi speaking on campus. Since then I have been subsequently contacted by another four other JSoc members and LGBTQ students who shared similar concerns. The general consensus was simple; the students concerned wanted to have the event pulled.

I must admit that I was caught unawares and was severely lacking in prior knowledge of the matter; had to play catchup and really get the research in.

Background of the issue

As biographies across the Internet will attest to, Dr. Tamimi is the director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, a prominent member of the Muslim Association of Britain and the Stop the War coalition, makes regular TV appearances and is a columnist for the Guardian.

Dr. Tamimi often speaks up for Hamas - which is still officially recognised in the UK as a terrorist organisation - and he is regarded by many as "the Hamas envoy to the UK" (see here). He has, on many occasions, affirmed his strong belief that giving one's life for a just cause is a noble cause (see this BBC hardtalk article for more information). Naturally, the right wing media has taken to twisting these opinions into arbitrarily praising suicide bombers, having seen the opportunity to incite more Islamiphobia in the UK.

However, one thing is clear: Dr. Tamimi is clearly a passionate believer in the cause of Hamas and has in fact stated that suicide bombing is necessary given the oppression faced by the Palestinian people. That alone is a very extremist opinion and a very dangerous thing to have on campus.

Reaction and Response

Many people have asked me why exactly the University would invite an extremist to campus. It's simple; the University and the Guild are in a difficult position. This event does not clash with the Guild's no-platform policy, although the exec certainly aren't comfortable with it. It's a no-win situation wherein the Jewish community feel threatened by this talk going ahead, but the Islamic community would feel unrepresented and discriminated against by any attempt to cancel it.

The JSoc members I spoke to are deeply concerned that allowing this kind of extremism on campus can encourage anti-Jewish attitudes and even hate crimes at the University of Birmingham. As I've said, it's too easy for people who are looking for an excuse to twist the matter, read the Facebook event and replace every instance of "Israel" with "Jews".

The concerns of myself and the LGBTQ community are of Dr. Tamimi's affiliation with Hamas, a known persecutor of LGBTQ individuals. Obviously it's not something we can afford to ignore, especially if Dr. Tamimi sings Hamas praises.

Later last week I had the chance to confer with ARAF Officer Anna Lawton on the matter and discuss what was going on. Anna has been fantastic in how she's handled this situation fairly and with great respect to JSoc and ISoc. For her trouble, however, Anna has been slandered by one or two spineless cowards - who shall remain nameless; they know who they are - who made their slanderous opinions public just long enough for people to see...then deleted them. Frankly, that does not bode well for the outcome of this event. :/

Personally, I strongly disagreed with attempts to prevent Dr. Tamimi from speaking altogether. One of the greatest freedoms we enjoy is the right to free speech and freedom of expression and this man is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, the entire student body at the University of Birmingham have a right to a hate-free environment and elected representatives must see that this happens. On that note, join this group!

The plan

I have asked that a number of Jewish and LGBTQ activists - as well as members of the Officer Team - join me in attending the event. If Dr. Tamimi is there to speak as an enlightened academic, I'm sure he'll be willing to answer our questions about life for Jews and LGBTQ people under Hamas rule impartially and fairly. If anything controversial comes up - either from speakers or guests - we'll be a position to challenge any such views. I'll also be bringing my camera to record the event.

I urge any other LGBTQ activists - with emphasis to same sex couples - to come with us to this event and freely express ourselves; ask questions and hear what has to be said.

The protest and the petition

JSoc have put together a petition for the University to withdraw Dr. Tamimi's permission to speak. While it's clear that nothing can be done at this point to implement this, JSoc maintain it's important to show just how many people are in support of their stance. While JSoc and the Jewish Community on campus have had my full support on this issue, I did not sign the petition on the basis that I don't believe stiffling a speaker is the answer; the right to free speech - although certainly not perfect - is not arbitrary, but it does entail the responsibility of allowing others to express themselves freely.

There will also be a protest organised by members of Student Rights outside the event.

Coming out, moving on

2010-01-19T23:58:00.000Z

The Counselling and Guidance Service is kicking off the "coming out, moving on" support group this week, starting tomorrow (Wednesday 20th January 2010). These run as confidential support groups wherein issues of coming out to parents, family, friends and colleagues are discussed.

These groups will run every Wednesday between 3:15PM and 4:45PM at 3 Elm Road on the following dates:

20th January
27th January
3rd February
10th February
17th February
24th February

More information on this group and the other support groups run by the Counselling Service is available here. The service has always been an excellent source of support for LGBTQ students, and I would strongly recommend it to any such student who may be experiencing issues at University.

Q-Chat

The Counselling Service also launched "Q-Chat" last Thursday, which myself and other LGBTQ volunteers trialled last term.

Q-Chat is a moderated online chatroom that runs every Thursday evening during term time between 8PM and 9:30PM to provide a safe, confidential and anonymous service through which LGBTQ students may discuss common issues with each other and the Counsellors.

Homophobia is Gay - Volunteers Needed!

2010-01-12T22:10:00.000Z

Homophobia is Gay 4 will be run this term. The date is as yet indeterminate but I am hoping for a week 5/6 Thursday.

Unlike previous years, the fourth incarnation of this highly successful event will be run chiefly by the Lib Dem Society, who have appointed a sub-committee to handle HIG.

The LGBTQ's primary support for planning and organisation comes in the form of...me. The commitee and further volunteers will help with stewarding, but I'm single-handedly representing us on this. Which is a bit shit! So, I'm looking for 3/4 LGBTQ volunteers - weather or not you're commitee/association members - to join my own little sub-committee and help out with the following:

Working/meeting regularly with Lib Dem Soc
Logistics of transport/stewarding
Offers, promos and other financial shizzle.
etc. etc. etc.

If you're interested, then feel free to contact me (m.ward@guild.bham.ac.uk or via Facebook) as soon as you can.

Muchos thanks!

Faith and Sexuality - opinions?

2010-01-12T21:48:00.000Z

Some of you may recall a Faith and Sexuality event between the LGBTQ and Chaplaincy at the end of November, which was kindly hosted at the Chaplaincy right before World AIDs Day. Sadly, because of the shameful foresight with events planning last term - and impending deadlines that particular week - only a few people from the LGBTQ were able to make it. It was a shame that only two members that weren't on the committee made it.

The event itself included a generously provided a free meal. It was good to see that LGBTQ members and friends were also there as part of MethSoc, AngSoc or the Chaplaincy itself, and that - after getting over initial "new people" shyness - we were all mingling.

Rev. Kara Cooper - our lovely host - really got the ball running with a good ice-breaker game in the round room. The discussion then moved onto instances where the bible has been used to oppress on the basis of sexuality, followed by an apology on behalf of all present for the oppression the LGBTQ guests may have faced in the name of religion. It was very thoughtful and helped create a welcoming atmosphere.

However, I felt the discussion itself had a hint of mutual half-paranoid awkwardness; I got the feeling that LGBTQ members were holding back for fear of making an anti-religious comment, and that the hosts were afraid of inadvertedly saying something that could be interpreted as institutionalised homophobia. Although we all eventually came to the conclusion that there is a huge difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance", we moved towards embracing the latter rather than just the former. However that's just my opinion.

So, here I am, once again elliciting your opinion, LGBTQ students...who I was kind of elected to represent... O_o

Personally, I'll be voting for more events. I really enjoyed the last one, definitely opened up the floor for another event and I would very much like for them to continue long after my term has ended.

Happy New Year; much is planned!

2010-01-06T20:48:00.000Z

A new year and a new decade are upon us; Happy New Year everyone. Myself and the LGBTQ have much planned for this term...here's an update.

Truth be told, I planned to get back on the case on Saturday following New Years Eve celebrations. However I, my housemates, and the many people who crashed over following our truly epic house party decided to take advantage of the January sales - at which time I bought this:

If you're thinking of buying it, be warned: it is an awesome and very addictive game which will consume entire days of your life and jeopardise your degree.

So, what's new?

You may have noticed significant aesthetic changes to my blog - something I'm quite proud of as I built the template myself.

The new design better integrates the "sub-pages" I had on my old design into better-organised pages and allows me to unclutter the sidebar. Now lather me with attention and praise! xD

The plan is...

Myself and Kitten met just before Xmas to evaluate term 1, identify strengths and weaknesses, and finally to discuss plans for term 2.

Improvement of Sexual Health Provisions

As I mentioned in my previous post, I feel that the sexual health support and provisions have been lacking in the LGBTQ this year. We have focused more on the personal welfare issues; coming out, bullying, relationship support; in which I feel we have been very successful.

However I've reached a snag in my plans to acquire vast quantities of condoms, lube and dental dams from the Terrence Higgins Trust; they don't seem to stock them in the quantities that I'm requesting. Thus begins my quest to search local GUM clinics,

History Month and Coalition West Midlands

Over the past month I've been in touch with the LGBT* officers/presidents/chairs of BCU, Aston, Coventry, Warwick and Wolverhampton. Between myself and Kitten we've reestablished Coalition West Midlands; a collaboration of student union LGBT* groups at these Universities and local FE institutions. The Joint Students Union Network I helped found following the Sheffield Training Residential didn't really go anywhere, besides occasional co-operation between officers on occasion. Local Universities are better equipped to collaborate on joint ventures and the coalition has served us well in the past.

The idea of the coalition - as with the JSUN - is to share ideas, work together on points of common interest and to co-ordinate joint events. The upcoming LGBT History Month is a perfect opportunity for us to get some joint event love on the go.

My plan is for each University's LGBT* group to host an event at their Union/Guild and invite the others. On top of that, Kitten proposed an event in Birmingham City Centre followed by a night out that everyone could attend. I'm in for implementing both plans; it'd make for a good history month.

Recurring Events

Coffee Afternoons and Film Nights were very successful last term and they'll be continuing on a regular basis.

Coffee afternoons will take place every Wednesday between 12PM and 3PM from 13th January, followed immediately by a committee meeting. Film Nights will take place on Sundays at 6PM - starting 17th January - in the Guild Council Chambers.

Reading Group was trialled last term and is likely to really begin in term 2; more information will be available by the end of Week 1 - after the committee has had a chance to meet.

Joint Events

We're kicking off our big joint events with our friend groups/societies this term, namely:

Homophobia is Gay 4 with the Lib Dem Society.
Another Faith and Sexuality evening with the Chaplaincy.
Rocky Horror with Rocksoc.
Sci-fi film evening with Sci-fi society.
Holocaust Memorial Day with JSoc on the 27th January.
Joint film evening with BEMA, focusing on issues of race/culture and sexuality.

Specific times and dates will show up on the LGBTQ events calendar over the next week as plans develop.

National Student Pride 2010

This is going to be the LGBTQ's "big event" of the year. It will be held in Brighton on Saturday, 6th March - which I don't think should intrude too much on deadlines. This bodes well for the potential turnout, however I do not the relish the task of sorting the logistics.

Campaigns

My careers and employability campaign is really going to kick off this term, and there's a definite chance to work with Fabian and the Sabbs who - at the last GC - stated this issue is a focal goal of the Guild.
Kitten and I think that a bi-awareness campaign would help improve bi involvement in the LGBTQ.

I'm still writing content for the "current projects" page (see links at the top of this page); once done it'll be maintained with updated information on projects, campaigns and events I'm working on.

Overall

It looks to be an exciting term! This post merely summarises our plans; expect future blogs elaborating on the specifics. The LGBTQ Association will alos rectifying past transgressions with "last minute" events/campaigns by implementing a minimum notice period for advertisement and emails on the mailing list to improve the service it provides.

There are five lights!

2009-12-31T13:38:00.000Z

If no one gets the reference in the title, I'm going to be mildly upset.

If NO ONE - really, no one - gets the reference in the subtle picture changes on my blog, I might even cry. :D

Also, it's New Years Eve and I have some serious partaying to prepare for. There's no way in hell I'm going to be in any state to even blog tomorrow so I have *just* enough time to bitch about one nagging LGBTQ issue before I'm too rat-arsed to type :P

OK...

LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer. There are five letters; not two. The misconception that the LGBTQ is a "gays-only club" is an unfortunate one that I've always wanted countered. One thing that bugs me slightly when I think of active membership in the LGBTQ is the lack of trans and, more noticeably, bisexual students. Improving the representation of B/T students is one of my core manifesto promises, and as far as I'm aware we only have four active bisexual members; two of whom of are committee - one being me. :S

"B" history 101

Until about ten years ago, what are now LGBT/LGBTQ organisations were simple L+G societies. I know some of the old cats who were officers at Coventry, Bradford and Surrey when the "B" was introduced. There was a lot of resistance based on in-house discrimination of bisexual people from gay people - a lot more from gay men than lesbians.

The resistance was, at best, a minor problem which did not stop the movement. It was also to be expected, as is always the case when implementing any kind of radical change/progression. A few years later there was similar resistance from [what was then] the LGB community on the introduction of "T" for "transgendered" (later "trans"). As a consequence of this progression, LGBT is a highly recognised acronym on it's own in part of another (case in point: LGBTQ :p).

"Greedy"

Perhaps the most-well-used discriminatory buzzword used against bi people. It's not hard to derive the motivation behind the use of this term, but it presupposes that bisexual people are always "playing both fields", so to speak. That's not necessarily the case, but it's a touch nut to crack. Of course the lifestyles of some bisexual people may fit the stereotype but the same is true for gay people, straight people, men, women etc. and the respective stereotypes applied to those groups.

An expected ratio?

From my perspective as a self-defined male bisexual student - and that of many bi friends and colleagues - bisexuals are subjected to a great deal of peer pressure either encouraging them to "normalise" to straight or gay, or to maintain an equal ratio of male/female interaction. My housemate constantly reminds me of "the ratio"; for me this has yielded much hillarity and banter, but for a lot of people it's annoying and offputting.

The Cambridge dictionary presents the following definition of "bisexual":

That's the strict definition but it's thankfully quite vague. Bisexuality is diverse and comes in many forms: men more attracted to men than women and vice versa; women more attracted to men and vice versa; people who go through "preference phases"; people who couldn't tell who they're more attracted to either way, etc etc. One could argue that everyone is bisexual to a certain degree, but many prefer to accept monosexuality as a simpler definition.

So what can be done?

Clearly, there are quite a lot of issues faced by bisexual students; indeed, bisexual people as a whole. I'm going to start a bi awareness campaign in the new term to tackle these issues and see if we can't improve bi involvement in the LGBTQ.

Trans inclusion

The few trans members of the LGBTQ have told me that trans inclusion and representation in the LGBTQ has improved this year. The Vigil held for TDOR was fairly well attended and it was fitting given the nature of the event. I was actually really grateful to hear that as I was becoming concerned that we hadn't done enough to promote trans inclusion.

There are more upcoming events and better support to promote trans inclusion; Jane from University E&D contacted me recently to see what we can do to improve student life for trans students, and history month will focus on trans history and issues as much as it will LGB. I welcome discussion with trans students to help develop trans inclusion in the Guild.

The various bi and trans issues will be tackled in campaigns next term. More specific plans will be revealed over the weekend and early next week. Until then, Happy New Year to you all; enjoy whatever partaying plans you may have for this evening ;)

Term 1: Roundup and reflections

2009-12-31T00:13:00.000Z

With Xmas now over with I noticed that a Sabb or two have been posting roundups of their last term. And I thought it was a good idea I'm stealing it and posting one myself. Ha.

First things first...Happy Xmas!

It's slightly belated but I did send out an emails, FB message and a tweet to all of our members on Xmas day - that definitely counts. :) I hope that you all had a good Xmas and that you enjoy the rest of your holidays.

Successes of last term

Through the LGBTQ Association, my work as Officer, and with the help of the Guild, University friend groups and local/national organisations we:

Improved our visibility and awareness of support for LGBTQ students by door-knocking in Welcome Week.
Put on a good stall at the Societies Fair in Welcome Week, where free hugs from lesbians were provided.
Ran an epic Freshers' barcrawl.
Adopted a more friendly policy regarding the National Blood Service with the "Give Blood Because We Can't" campaign.
Put on hugely successful weekly Coffee/Befriending afternoons for our members, which promotes a friendly and comfortable environment.
Organised events forums and participation in committee meetings for our members.
Ran regular film nights which were evidentally quite popular.
Ran a joint Faith/Sexuality event with the Chaplaincy.
Built up a good relationship with the Methodist Chaplain, MethSoc and AngSoc.
Encouraged group outings with our members to the Birmingham Gay Scene ("Gay Thursdays").
Encouraged group outings to events run by a wide range of societies, acknowledging the diversity of our students.
Took part in World AIDS Day, raising crucial awareness and funds for HIV charities.
Volunteered to join the St. Basil's Sleepout to raise awareness and funds for LGBT* homelessness.
Arranged outings to events at the SHOUT Festival of LGBT Culture.
Organised a candle vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Engaged in various campaigns and protests against the BNP, the increase in tuition fees etc.
Had various interviews with RedBrick.
Ran an Xmas quiz to wrap up our non-club night events for the term.

On top of that the LGBTQ has had a full and diverse committee this term, and has improved the website and other forms of online media and contact methods.

Points for improvement

After talking with a few of our members, I think that some things that could use some more attention (from both myself and the Association) include:

Focus on Sexual Health and necessary provisions - we've focused mainly on the personal/social aspect of sexuality/gender; next term will see improvements in this area.
Better event planning - there's been a lot of last minute organisation and I'm keen to see that this ends with term 1.
More campaigning - I kicked off my flagship campaign last term and that will be in full swing by mid term 2.

More specific plans are being formulated and will follow shortly.

Special Thanks

The accomplishments of last term could not not have been possible without the help of Kitten and the LGBTQ Committee, some of our more active members, the Chaplaincy/MethSoc/AngSoc, Counselling Service, E&D RockSoc, MetalSoc, Sci-fi Soc, the Officer Team, the Birmingham LGBT Community Trust to name a few. Thanks for all your help and I look forward to working with you in the new year.

Happy new year.

BBC: "Have your biggotive outburst"

2009-12-28T09:22:00.000Z

Very recently the BBC issued an controversial and outrageous article on their "Have Your Say" blog entitled "Should homosexuals face execution?". Such an inflamatory question on a public forum of such a high-profile organisation immediately attracted complaints and they "revised" the title to "Should Uganda debate gay execution?" shortly thereafter. Oh yes, and they also closed the debate.

How stupid can the BBC possibly get? They're well aware that a question like that is going to receive widespread support from the masses of biggotive BNP and EDL scum that infest the UK. This happens no less less then two months after they allow the BNP on question time. The optimist in me still likes to believe that they put Nick Griffin on to deliberately to humilate him and his party. But the more this kind of shit happens with the BBC the more I'm inclined to believe that they're rapidly becoming a front for the BNP.

Obviously neither myself, Kitten, nor any of the LGBTQ Committee or Association can let this stand. Rob, fellow housemate and member of the committee wrote a letter to the BBC on behalf of Birmingham LGBTQ students which can be found on his post on the LGBTQ blog.

As Rob pointed out in his blog, the BBC made an attempt to explain their position with a public statement on their website. Have your say apparently has quite the history of being a mouthpiece for the BNP. It might be an exercise in freedom of speech, but it's the same as asking questions like "was the Holocaust justified?" or "would reviving the slave trade solve immigration?". Think about those questions and ask yourself "are they acceptable"? It's disgusting and heads should roll for this.

I think we all need to keep a very close eye on the BBC's activities over the coming months.

Charity Sleepout...in photos

2009-12-16T15:07:00.000Z

Myself and five other members of the LGBTQ Association took part in the St. Basils "Big SleepOut" on Friday 4th december (I briefly blogged about it just before leaving).

The SleepOut was intended to raise awareness of homeless and raise funds for St. Basil's by sponsorship. Of particular interest to us is the concern of LGBT* homelessness. According to one source, 26% of gay teens who come out are made homeless. Out of the 1.6 million homeless American youth, an estimated 42% self-define as gay/lesbian/bisexual.

The event was held in the car park of St. Basil's in Digbeth. The 250 participants were provided with cardboard boxes and sheets of plastics with which to construct a shelter for the evening. For some reason we as a group felt that constructing a pentagon-shaped fortress was a smart move. After later augmenting the structure with a series of pillars, before learning that the real issue with rain is the puddles that tend to form underneath. Although our creation endured a night of rain quite well under the circumstances, we spent the last two hours by the fire-bin.

In spite of all that, it's glaringly obvious that we were quite well provisioned for during, so it was hard to gain a full appreciation of the challenges faced by our LGBTQ brothers and sisters who are made homeless; but at the very least it was a taster. As a group we raised roughly £100 through sponsorship donations which will goto this worthwhile charity. I'd like to thank everyone that gave up their Friday evening to take part in this event.

The full photo album is here on Facebook; tags and all.

World AIDs Day...in photos!

2009-12-14T13:37:00.000Z

World AIDS Day was a huge success on all counts. I was happy to see a huge crowd of volunteers from the Guild and LGBTQ showing up to help out with flyering and collecting donations. Kudos to Johnny Davis for the amount of work he put into the day (especially the big red bus - pure genius) - be sure to congratulate him whenever you get the chance.

Cold weather, warm spirits

It was absolutely freezing on the day, but altogether the Guild raised £300 which went to Crusaid and the Terrence Higgins Trust, the two organisations that kindly sent me boxes of freebies. Many thanks to everyone who donated; you helped fund organisations that do some amazing work towards preventing the spread of HIV and helping those who live with it.

The film

OK, I'll admit that Philidelphia - having now watched it - was a depressing film; there were definite tears in the LGBTQ Room near the end of the film. However, it was very appropriate given the occasion and brought forward some important messages - most especially how we can truly appreciate that LGBTQ equality has clearly improved since the film was released sixteen years ago. At the same time there are still relevant issues with respect to careers and sexuality that my careers/employability campaign will take into account.

Special thanks to...

Johnny Davis - the mastermind behind the Guilds' plans.
The rest of the Officer Team who came and helped out: Fabian Neuner, Ed Sparkes, Brigid Jones, Tom Guise, Katie Ford, Emma Packham, Jo Grainger, Simon Fairbanks, Anna Lawton, Allan Ssesanga and Edd Bauer.
Volunteers from the LGBTQ committee and our members who came to help out.
Everyone from the Guild and University who volunteered to help.

The full photo album is here on Facebook; tags and all.

Happy Hannukah!

2009-12-11T17:37:00.000Z

The Hannukah festival starts at sunset this evening and will carry on until next Friday, so a "happy Hannukah" to all of our Jewish LGBTQ students and friends from the Guild, Chaplaincy and the University ^_^

Sleepout! Raising money and awareness for homeless LGBTQ people.

2009-12-04T21:00:00.000Z

Tonight, myself and several members of the LGBTQ Associatioon will be attending the St. Basil's Sleepout to raise funds for - and awareness of - homelessness that many LGBTQ people are subjected to.

Many thanks to those of you who have already agreed to sponsor me and the others for this event! If you haven't had the chance to do so, then please consider donating to this worthwhile charity.

World AIDS Day

2009-12-01T10:45:00.000Z

Today is World AIDs Day, observed around the world to raise awareness of the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) as well as the dangers posed by other sexually transmitted diseases.

Since 1987, AIDS has killed over 25 million people. As of 2007, over 33 million live people live with it worldwide, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in recorded history. For this reason, countless organisations take part in the observance of World AIDS Day to place the highest emphasis on sexual health to prevent the spread of the virus, and raise funds for research into treatments.

The Guild and LGBTQ Association will be marking the day with the Mermaid Fountain draped in a red sash, and suspiciously spewing forth dyed red water. There will also be the red double-decker bus on which Guild and LGBTQ volunteers will be handing out information, collecting for AIDs and sexual health charities.

12-2: Guild Car Park
2-4: Campus (library)
4-7: Halls of Residence

The LGBTQ have been kindly sponsored by Crusaid and the Terence Higgins Trust; two very prominent organisations in the field of sexual health and HIV. They've kindly provided posters

Also, the LGBTQ's film night was moved from Sunday 29th to tonight at 6PM to coincide with World AIDs Day. We will be showing Philidelphia, a film that illustrates the controversy that many with AIDS have faced:

"When a man with AIDS is fired by a conservative law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit."

Advice for LGBTQ Househunters

2009-11-30T17:16:00.000Z

With the housing season now upon us, and students now hunting for houses en masse, I figured I'd provide some advice to LGBTQ students with the issue of housemates.

LGBTQ Housing was a pet project before term started. Between myself, Ed Sparkes, and the lovely people at the SHAC and University E&D we came up with options for LGBTQ students.

The SHAC officially opens tomorrow, fulfilling a housing objective the Guild has been aiming towards for years. Finally, there is a buffer between students and unscrupulous landlords, and facilitation for students seeking preferences for housemates. They have kindly provided the facility on their website for people to specify preferences with housemates, and in my discussions with them they've agreed to allow preferences on sexuality much as they do for culture. I'm still skeptical in that this option implicitly asks people to out themselves, so read the advice below if you'd rather not use it.

As I said before, housing for LGBTQ students alone borders on encouraging segregation, which goes against the beliefs of the Guild and LGBTQ Association. So when attending the housing fairs - if you're an LGBTQ student - please try to bear in mind:

If you've had bad experiences with homophobia...

If you don't want to live with the same people next year, you may find the prospect living with other LGBTQ people more comfortable. From personal experience, a mixed house (with only one two other LGBTQ housemates) works out quite well...but it's entirely up to you.

Where's good for finding housemates

If you are thinking of finding specifically LGBTQ housemates, I'd recommend going to LGBTQ events and talking to the people there before you stick an ad up on the SHAC website. Wednesday coffee afternoons are the best time. You may find people who already have a small group and are looking for one/two people to fill spaces. The LGBTQ committee will be putting up notices on the website over the coming weeks.

There's no rush

This is the Guild's housing motto this year. Historically, students tend to rush to get housing for the next year before Christmas. You can find houses all year around; don't be pressured by landlords or agents into getting everything sorted early. However if you're looking for larger (5+ bedroom), better quality houses, then certain landlords do tend to fill those up sooner rather than later. In other words, you're not under pressure to rush along to the next LGBTQ event unless you're really bothered about good quality. (I got a really nice house this year for a bargain, and didn't start looking until February).

In any case, if you've formed a group, then I seriously advise you to make use of the SHAC. It is the best safeguard there is against unscrupulous landlords taking advantage of students.

Faith and Sexuality

2009-11-29T17:00:00.000Z

There is a huge stigma surrounding religion and sexuality, and a strong belief among many in the LGBTQ community that the two are mutually exclusive. As far as organised religion goes, this belief is not without justification. Liviticus 18:22 has been reinterpreted and twisted throughout the centuries by various Christian denominations in order to condemn homosexuality. Homosexuals are also condemned in the Qu'ran 15:73 and 26:165, and homosexuals face persecution, torture, and even execution in regimes that institutionalise their own interpretation of a particular faith.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a particularly bad example of a conservative, homophobic organisation that gives faith and organised religion a very bad name (indoctrinating children into their hateful regime, no less).

However, while this is the experience of many LGBTQ people - a huge contributing factor to the number of athiests in the community - it's certainly not the experience of all. More importantly, there is a huge difference between faith and organised religion; faith in a particular ideal is obviously more liberal than adherence to a value system established by the latter. Many LGBTQ people follow a particular faith - be it through their own interpretation of faith, or through the more enlightened organised religious groups within christianity/mormonism/etc who do not exclude on the basis of sexuality. These enlightened groups have been given a bad name by their conservative, homophobic counterparts in other religious organisations and they should not be treated as one and the same.

That being said, even in a welcoming and enlightened religious organisation it's still very difficult for people to come out to others in such a community because of this stigma. It's something we should work to avoid given the opportunity.

As I mentioned in my recent catch-up post, the Chaplaincy here at the University is very progressive, very friendly and myself and the LGBTQ have established a good working relationship with the Methodist Chaplain, Kara Cooper, in particular. Kara and the Chaplaincy staff acknowledge that LGBTQ people have suffered in the name of religious doctrine and are dedicated to changing this. Kara has also recently become a regular at many of our events (even providing a projector that actually works for GC chambers) and through our various discussions we've put together an event for this week.

The LGBTQ Association and the Chaplaincy will be running a faith and sexuality event tomorrow, Monday 30th November, at 6PM in the Chaplaincy's Oasis lounge. It's an opportunity for a group discussion with the chaplains, myself, a few committee members and other LGBTQ to discuss their experiences and perspectives. If anyone wants to come along please do; a free meal will be provided. Afterwards we'll all mooch over to the pub for a quick drink. All in all definitely worth coming along to.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

2009-11-20T13:30:00.000Z

Today is international Transgender Day of Remembrance on which people across the world remember those who have been killed as a result of transphobic violence.

TDOR was set up following the death of Rita Hester in 1998 on a set of guiding principles:

"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." (Santayana)
All who die due to anti-transgender violence are to be remembered.
It is up to us to remember these people, as their killers, law enforcement, and the media often seek to erase their existence.
Transgender lives - like all other lives - are affirmed to have value.
We can make a difference: by being visible and speaking out about anti-transgender violence, we can effect change.

The LGBTQ will be holding a candlelit vigil tonight, at 6:30PM in Mermaid Square. There will be readings/poetry; please feel to come along and get in touch with Kai. Weather is looking promising at the moment but no guarantees!

Friday drop-in sessions

2009-11-19T12:57:00.000Z

As I mentioned briefly in my recent catch-up post, both myself and the chair of the LGBTQ Association
will be attending "Peak Performance" - an event run by Birmingham and Solihull NHS trust and supported by Stonewall and other employer coalitions.

Consequently, I will be missing Guild Council and have already sent my apologies. Since this means that students won't have the opportunity to talk to me during the questions/scrutiny, I'm advertising a drop-in session tomorrow (Friday 20th November) 12PM-2PM in the Non-Sabb office (directly above GC Chambers). If anyone did want to speak to me or ask a question at Guild Council please feel free to drop by on Friday and ask away.

Although I help run the LGBTQ Association's coffee/befriending afternoons, they're generally a group event and don't afford much privacy. I'm considering making these Friday drop-in sessions a regular thing from now on. Opinions?

What I've been up to

2009-11-19T12:45:00.000Z

Well, the inevitable period where my Uni work - particularly my final year project became my main priority has finally arrived. But fear not - I've not dropped off the map quite yet; I've just become shamefully slow at blogging. Here's a breakdown of what I've been upto these past two weeks.

GOG and Guild
LGBTQ Association
Links with the Chaplaincy
Homophobia is Gay 4
HE Fees Campaigning
Climate Change Events
More on the Blood Ban

GOG and Guild

GOG was last Wednesday, few things discussed here and there, with a good effort from Johnny as chair. Although my motion on non-sabb support was purely operational and not for Guild Council, I had a chance to discuss it at GOG. The result is a planned meeting between myself and the VPSAD about how to seriously improve things for next year's exec.

If GOG was any indication, a prominent theme of November GC is going to be the matter of censuring and no-confidence votes for the Officer Team; something I felt strongly about after October GC. There are two motions that have been proposed (1, 2); hopefully by the end of tonight's GC they'll somehow merge and yield in a sensible disciplinary policy for negligent officers in place.

LGBTQ Association

Events going on as usual; the coffee afternoons seem to have become very popular to the point where more chairs are needed, and it was good to see new people show up over the past few weeks. As always film night has fairly good attendance and the films we show - and post-film discussion - helps raise awareness of common LGBTQ issues with our members.

Our website has seen a lot more activity in terms of updates and one or two upgrades; particularly our events and recent news, which now includes information from gay-friendly societies and friendly within the Guild and University. We've also included local and national events,

Links with the Chaplaincy

This year the Chaplaincy and the LGBTQ Association have enjoyed a good relationship, starting with their support over the "give blood because we can't" campaign. With a great deal of help from the methodist chaplain Kara Cooper - now a welcome regular at our coffee and film events - we've organised a faith and sexuality discussion event on Monday 30th November in the Chaplaincy's Oasis Lounge (free meal provided!). Kara was good enough to extend an open invitation to all of the chaplaincy events, which are now advertised on the LGBTQ website events calendar.

Homophobia is Gay 4

The long-awaited event of the year for many LGBTQ students has met with some opposition from the LGBTQ committee unhappy about the contribution of the Lib Dem society in past HIG barcrawls. After discussions across three seperate committee meetings, a compromise was reached.

Homophobia is Gay is an ongoing national campaign by Liberal Youth. The LGBTQ committee will provide stewards for the barcrawl and will help with online advertising, but the ball is in their court; they are responsible for planning and organising. However, in my "seperate" capacity as officer I will be helping the Lib Dems organise and advertise the event however I can, as it's highly recognisable to LGBTQ students past and present.

HE Fees Campaigning

Edd Bauer spearheaded a focus group and campaigning efforts after the post-FlashMob fees meeting last week which I've latched onto. As our efforts are starting to see some fruition - in terms of the support we're getting from our networks of contacts - we've started to involve Fabian and Brigid as the Sabbs with invested interest to co-ordinate all efforts.

Climate Change Campaigns

As a bit of a recycling freak I'm particularly interested in this, thus attended a few of Edd's climate change events in Mermaid Square and outside Natwest; particularly towards the "How old will you be in 2050" campaign. Although an eco-concerned software engineering student may seem like a contradiction in terms, more than a few of us lot are strong advocates for the development of energy efficient power supply units for laptops and computers, as well as clean and renewable energy sources. Significant progress has been made to that end over the past three years with modern laptop batteries and power supplies becoming noticeably more efficient, which is good news all round.

LGBTQ Careers and Employability

I want this to take off over the next few weeks as my main campaign/pet project of the year. My interview with RedBrick gave me the opportunity to reflect on the issue of workplace discrimination, and careers/employability is an issue for every student.

Kitten and I both have invites to the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Trust "Peak Performance" event this evening in Moseley - "an evening of celebration supporting Diversity Week with a focus on the contribution of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans staff". The event is supported by Stonewall, the West Midlands Employer Coalition and Advantage West Midlands. I'm looking forward to the chance to meet with representatives of these organisations and seeing how we can work together to the benefit of future LGBTQ employees.

More on the Blood Ban

I've been in touch with fellow officers at Birmingham City University and Coventry University regarding Donation Not Discrimination campaignining; we're all interested in joint campaign events during LGBT History Month this year. While I've put a hold on all DND action campaigns in light of the blood ban review, I'd love the chance to get the West Midlands coalition back together (involving Warwick, Aston and Wolverhampton too) for some awareness campaigning.

FLASHMOB!

2009-11-12T09:31:00.000Z

Yesterday there was a FlashMob Protest outside the Aston Webb building campaigning against the proposed rise in tuition fees, following the announcement that our own Pro-Vice Chancellor David Eastwood was a member of the review panel.

To put things in context...

I'm going to start by being fiendishly self-centred and talking about me.

I'm from a working class background. I left home at 19 while in my second year of college; my living costs was funded purely by working 35 hour weeks, and eventually contract work alongside my studies before coming to Uni in 2006 - the year the £3,000 tuition fees were introduced. The Student Loans Company refused to consider me a self-sufficient student and took my mother's income into account. I was fortunate; her financial situation entitled me to the maximum tuition fee and maintenace loans, supplementary grant, and I was also entitled to the Birmingham Scholarship and Grant based on my entry grades.

I might add that in 2007 - a year after the new fees were introduced, the SLC doubled the interest rates from 2.4% to 4.8%. When I graduate this June, I will have accumulated over £25,000 of debt.

I have a 15-year-old sister who hopes to study at University in a few years time. University would give her a chance to explore her potential and develop the knowledge and skills that she can bring back to society in her future career, and she certainly deserves that chance. She's currently living with my father who is in a much better financial situation, and she probably won't get the entitlement I got. She may not be able to go to University altogether.

I have gay friends who were disowned by their homophobic families and struggle to survive - while studying at college - with aspirations of University. If the top-up fees double they probably won't be able to go to University.

It's a dangerous precident

The very idea of raising tuition fees promotes the incredibly conservative notion that there is a direct correlation between intellectual potential and socio-economic background (The Daily Hate Mail tried to illustrate it as such in one of their "articles" earlier this year).

If our government allows fees to go up then it brings our nation's higher education system back by at least a century, where only the elite, rich, straight, white students could go to University, as I seriously doubt that the SLC will support £7K yearly tuition fee loans.

More importantly, it's been five years since the £3K tuition fees were introduced; how exactly has the quality of higher education improved in that time?

So what can be done about it?

Fabian, and presidents from Student Unions/Guilds across the country have signed a petition protesting the Labour and Tory parties hiding behind this review.
Edd started a small, active student group that I and three other LGBTQ members have joined.
I've contacted my brother and a few friends in the Liberal Democrats; as the one party that has always decried top-up fees, they are truly our greatest ally. Ideally a massive national student boycott of all Labour and the Tories by voting LibDem or Green would at help balance things out.
Nick Petrie and I are putting together a mini-site to keep track of the "tell David" campaign, the progress of the review and reactions across the country. It won't just be for students; obviously we want to appeal to local people whose children will be barred from higher education by increasing the fees.
More to come soon...

What's standing in our way?

Something that has caused me to repeatedly banging my head against a wall is the fact that activist students are so involved; so passionate that they find the concept of an apathetic student hard to believe. In fact, they underestimate just how far apathy extends. The more the Guild tries to engage these students, the further they are pushed away. Trust me, I've lived with more than a few of them. However, like me, some of them have younger relatives and friends with University aspirations; and we can appeal to them on that basis. to get involved even to a basic level.

The same can be said for the seemingly built-in attitude of local residents that students are lazy, intrusive scum who take up space. However, I reminded myself of Brigid's blog post about University places. People were angry their kids wouldn't be going to University; we can appeal to those people on that basis.

More to come on this as it develops!

Also, check out the FlashMob coverage from RedBrick, Guardian, Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post.

Remembrance Day

2009-11-11T11:44:00.000Z

Today, 11th November, marks the 80th Remembrance Day which commemorates the sacrifices made in war; notably both World wars.

Remembrance day holds a special significance to LGBTQ people everywhere. The freedom to even fight for equality would not have been possible had it not been for the sacrifices made in past wars; especially given the persecution that gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people suffered under the Nazi regime during WW2.

The University and Guild held the respectful two-minute silence in keeping with tradition to remember those who fought for the freedoms we enjoy. From where I was standing by the Aston Webb building, I was amazed to see just how many people stopped where they were, what they were doing to take part. I would like to thank everyone - LGBTQ students or otherwise - who participated.

Tolerance: Acceptance or enforcement?

2009-11-08T07:40:00.000Z

My week got off to an interesting start with the discovery of a large parcel with my name on it. Instant reaction: "for me? yay!"

I opened it up and found that it contained:

The 2009/2010 Stonewall guides. I'd never finished reading the 08/09 ones...guess I don't have to now! :D
Advertisement cards for an upcoming careers fair designed for LGBTQ people.

While I'm still ploughing through the guide, the careers thing was particularly interesting to me on several levels, which I had a chance to discuss during my interview with RedBrick.

The interview

On Monday afternoon I met another of Nick's lovely editors from the RedBrick Features section for an interview for an article she was writing. It was more of an informal and pleasant - yet highly productive - chat focusing on a number of topics:

Sexuality and the Workplace

I can say from experience that this is a difficult issue, and will probably continue to be for years to come. In a workplace you're liable to work alongside anyone between the age of 16 and 65. Generally, senior positions (i.e. positions with authority) will be filled by the older generation; people who weren't raised in the progressive years of LGBTQ equality; employees that come out are liable to feel subject to sexuality-based judgement. We as University students have it easy by comparison; those of us who choose to come out can do so with little-to-no risk to our careers. Also, those of us who are not working while studying have the luxury of being able to take a active political stance on such issues without the worry of losing income and livelihood.

Case in point: the University Staff LGBTQ I've been helping to establish. The historic conservative nature of UoB makes it even more difficult for staff to publicly identify their sexuality. Having worked as a software engineer since before I started Uni, I understand all too well. Consequently, the fact that I served as the Guild's LGBTQ Officer will never appear on my CV. I've been a software engineer for longer than I've been at Uni, and the price of compromising my career just to make a political statement certainly isn't one I can afford to pay.

That being said, the word "discrimination" has become a powerful word in the workplace that minorities - LGBTQ or otherwise - have at their disposal. However, I believe that with any amount of power comes an equal amount of responsibility and this should only be used to justify crimes against the equality of minorities; not their superiority. For this reason I call it "the 'D'-word".

Homophobia - restricted to men?

I'm glad this question was asked. In my experience - and the experience of many of my friends - the majority of homophobia tends to be directed at gay/bi males by their straight peers; often a result of the "alpha-male" mentality and a belief that gay/bi males are inferior because they will not procreate. Lesbians have also fallen victim to the alpha-male mentality; yielding harrassment and abuse ranging from sexist comments to the shocking concept of "corrective rape".

That being said, homophobia certainly isn't exclusive to males. Lesbians are subject to abuse from their female peers. From what some of my lesbian friends have told me, female homophobia tends to be a nastier, more subtle version of male homophobia, however the effect is the same.

I personally, as a bisexual man, have also encountered a great deal of biphobia from women, as have one or two bisexual male friends; male bisexuality tends to put a lot of women off. What's worse, a shocking number seriously thought that the fact I've had sex with other men means I'm automatically HIV positive (thank you VERY much National Blood Service policy >_<). It's fairly uncommon, but it does happen.

Condemnation by organisations

I've always thought that the blood ban was the last remaining significant obstacle standing in the way of progressing LGBTQ equality. A national organisation operating on poorly-hidden, institutialised homophobia is a sad reflection on our nation's social progression, and I sincerely hope that the recent consultation (mentioned in my last blog post) yields some real change in the their policies soon.

Recent press such as that outrage that was Jan Moir's article, the Norwich gay pride response letter and, of course, Nick Griffin making a complete fool of himself on national television prompted the writing of the RedBrick article. It's enough to raise a few eyebrows and ask the questions: Have people been pressured into merely tolerating homosexuality and are they lashing out in frustration? Or have we instead simply raised a new generation who see sexuality as such a trivial aspect of a person, and are older generations simply lashing out in fear?

I ultimately stand by the sentiment I was quoted on: huge strides have been made towards LGBTQ equality in the last ten years, particularly in this country. There are still countries throughout the world who criminalise homosexuality, and someone's very life is at risk just because of who they are. Bisi Alimi is one of these people; a Nigerian man who came out as gay on National Television (as shown in the video below) - an act which has rightfully earned him the respect of many LGBTQ people worldwide, myself included.

My point is, while we can appreciate the strides that have been made in recent years, here in the UK, we shouldn't hanging up our coats and call it a day; the last vestiges of intolerance and discrimination can and will be eliminated.

You will rarely see me this political...October GOG/GC

2009-10-31T04:07:00.000Z

The recent Guild Council of Thursday, 29th October, and the preceding Guild Officer Group (GOG) meeting of Wednesday, 20th October brought up a number of matters for concern to both the LGBTQ students I represent, students in general, and the bureaucratic and democratic infrastructures of the Guild.

Guild Officer Group

This is the first such meeting of the year, and included newly elected Postgraduate and Mature Students Officer, Simon Fairbanks, and International Students Officer, Ahmed Ibrahim. There was also pizza.

The meeting allowed the new exec to clarify motions procedures, discuss any burning issues and make recommendations on Guild Council motions. A quick summary (including GC outcomes):

Update on the Democratic Structures Review - still awaiting consultation
Guild Council, Campaigning and Elections 101
Election of Jo and Katie to elections committee.
Motion 8a - National Blood Service policy - GOG recommended approval; starred and passed at GC
Motion 8b - Guild - Be seen and heard - GOG recommended approval
Motion 8c - More Sport...Less cost - GOG recommended approval
Motion 8d - Equal Access to Higher Education for Asylum Seekers - GOG recommended approval; starred at GC
Motion 8e - New Terms of Reference Ethical & Environmental Forum - GOG recommended approval
Motion 8f - Disarm Birminghams Investments - no GOG recommendation; starred at GC and failed

The Blood Donation Policy

I brought this up in in a previous post when Johnny originally put the motion together. GOG gave us the opportunity to clarify why this was put in place again, in light of what happened during the great controversial year of the Guild, and more importantly why myself and the LGBTQ Association are supporting it.

I am well aware that there's a feeling, amongst some LGBTQ students (hopefully not too many), that I and the LGBTQ are essentially giving up on Donation Not Discrimination and even supporting the blood ban by co-operating with the NBS. Quite frankly, this is a grossly oversimplified, rather pretentious view based on the fact that we had a stall next to the blood van and I resent it, but knew it was inevitable. And although the motion passed with a large majority vote at GC, I was personally hoping that I'd get a little more speech time in to explain and reaffirm our position to council. Sadly, the best I could do was a point of information that demonstrated how bad I still am with public speaking. More practice is needed.

In respect to the Donation Not Discrimination campaign run by the NUS LGBT, there was a public meeting on Tuesday(27th October) as part of it's review into the donation policy. We submitted the 300 signatures we collected during my "Give Blood Because We Can't" Welcome Week campaign, which contributed to the 9,000 signatures sent. Although I have yet to hear anything official from the NUS LGBT delegates, I've collated a few articles from a diverse variety of parties; one or two showing clear bias one way or another.

"Gay blood donation ban under review"
Health Service Journal, 27th October, 2009
"Ending the ban on gay blood donors?"
Channel 4 News, 27th October, 2009
"Britain's Gay Blood Ban Under Review"
Advocate.com, 27th October, 2009
"Gay blood ban to be reviewed"
The Christian Institute, 27th October, 2009

Just to clarify; I'm aware that the last article is quite controversial but did come up as one of the top news results. I was obviously quite disgusted with it - not just because it was clearly against gay men giving blood (in fact, homosexuality in general) - but because the owners of that site certainly don't represent the views of all Christians. We had tremendous support from the University Chaplaincy with "Give Blood Because We Can't" and we are continuing to work with them on their offer of discussing issues of faith and sexuality. I have no intention of inciting my readers and constituents against all Christians by posting this link here.

An "eventful" Guild Council

The events of last night's Guild Council are no secret, nor are the circumstances leading up to it. It's also no secret that myself and two of the other non-sabbs feel quite strongly on the issue of Edd Bauer's vote of censure.

Earler in the evening the HSO and the Women's Officer were automatically censured for not submitting a blog entry. The HSO was censured again by vote initiated by his predecessor from the 2008/09 exec, on the basis that he had done absolute nothing for his constituents in his three months as an officer. I might add that both are still in office...meaning that there's potential for home students and women students to suffer another two months of this negligence AT LEAST before they're removed from office. And why? Because the Guild for some reason doesn't believe in implementing a no-confidence voting mechanism to summarily remove clearly negligent officers; it's "negative" and "undemocratic".

Edd's outburst at the independant chairs may have been out of order and excessive, and I agree there should have been consequences. However, the Guild has been getting away with ongoing instances of democratic abuse and bereaucratic incompetence (see Edd's blog and my comment at the bottom). He was censured by a majority vote for this behaviour in Guild Council just because he refused to stand by and let these problems continue.

My problem with the censure is that it brings the most diligent, dedicated and passionate non-sabbatical officer we have down to the level of the other two officers. Officers that stood for election to represent a group of students only to utterly disappoint them by doing absolutely nothing. So we have a double standard by which the Guild does everything in it's power to tolerate negligent officers, then condemns an overly enthusiastic officer who shouts out in Guild Council because it's the only way he can do his job. What the hell?!

Fine, Edd is a colleague and a friend I've been working alongside for three months. For most of that time we were the only two functioning non-sabbs. I know that for a fact that he works his ass off - to the point where I wonder if he even does a degree anymore - which probably biases my view of the whole thing. It's definitely part of the reason myself and Anna were pining to give a speech against his censure. However I maintain that perpetuating this kind of double standard is wrong and the Guild should seriously rethink it's "slap on the wrist" policy.

SHOUT is here!

2009-10-30T14:40:00.000Z

The SHOUT Festival starts today with a launch party in the Gale this evening.

Sadly I have a huge load of paperwork to clear today - both for my course and the LGBTQ - so I won't be attending. Sad times. If anyone wants to come and give me a sympathetic hug, please do.

I'd recommend the launch party to all LGBTQ students looking for something to do this evening. SHOUT has been months in planning and the Birmingham LGBT Trust has put a great deal of work into it's development; hence this launch party looks to be pretty awesome. And if you go, be sure to do a little extra partying for me :)

Also, anyone that requested discount tickets to see "The Fear of Queer" and hasn't handed in their money yet, please contact Brooke (directly or via me/the LGBTQ) as soon as possible - Sunday at the latest.