A heads up

With exams looming I'm probably not going to be posting here very often. I'm sure I'll make some comments post NUS conference next week but I'm winding down my time in office and obviously academic stuff begins to take the front seat until late May. This by no means implies that I'm done yet, there are still things I want to do before I'm finished. Also, due to a foul bit of exam scheduling I'll miss both May Guild Council AND Eurovision. Heartless.

In a manner emphatic and free

The new LGBTQ committee is:

Chair: Hollie Jane Pike
Secretary: Conor Delaney
Treasurer: Aaron Wright
Non portfolio officers: Katie Weston and Jordi Rozario (Open Places)
                                      Kitten Onwordi and Eve Snape (Womens Places)
Guild Councillors: Alex Wright (moi) and Cate Hall

NUS LGBT Delegates: Kitten Onwordi and Aaron Wright (Open Places)
                                        Emma O'Dwyer and Hollie Jane Pike (Womens Places)

That'll do nicely!

Wall, meet fist.

'Get up, or come get down with the sickness. Open up your hate, and let it flow into me'
Disturbed - Down With the Sickness

Sometimes you come across something that challenges and upsets you by rights, more than it should. I won't mention any details such as names, times, places and institutions more than I have been permitted to etc. but I had a case of severe homophobic bullying reported to me. This was with regards to both students and staff members conduct and I really feel the need to punch 
something. Anything. It is so clear to me that even what we would describe as a 'fully-developed' bullying reporting system doesn't always work.The face that LGBTQ students facing issues surrounding their orientation are forced to disclose 
it in order to make the complaints they need to upsets me hugely. It puts massive pressure on that student to make a step they may well not be willing to and certainly not one that is required by most mitigatroy systems where a level of anonymity is allowed. People sometimes ask us as officers to defend the need for a student union, and there it is. Because when the basic rights of our students are violated its not always the institution that is capable of fixing things or dealing with those welfare issues in the way that we need them to. The pressure for change must come from us because who the hell else is going to do it?

A deeper breath

'But if I wake up on a bench on Shepursburgh Scree Oh, a candle at my chest, and a hand on his knee I'll roll over and hold him tightly, and scream "If you want him, well you're gonna have to fight me!" '
Laura Marling - Night Terror

Long time. Not enough speak. With Guild elections and a few personal issues I've had less time to blog and I'm sorry.... not that anyone reads this anyway so I apologise to the empty cyberspace. I'm sure you feel the communal pain. There are a lot of things I want to say but I won't kick off with the negatives; congratulations to LGBTQO elect Emma O'Dwyer. Emma has been a bastion of the LGBTQ community at Birmingham for a while and I'm thrilled she'll be carrying on her amazing efforts the latest of which was this little beauty, a new LGBTQ website. Emma and I also spent a day in Leeds at an NUS/Unipol event about bullying in halls. The LGBTQ association has earmarked this as an area of concern and we were set to do campaigining on it in Febuary but with the referendum and elections the plan is to have discussions with the university in the early summer term and roll out a highly visual campaign for Freshers. There's little sense in doing a full on halls campaign when we're moving into exam season but we can do the behind-the-scenes numbers.

Oh, LGBTQ AGM is on Thursday 20th March, 7pm in Guild Council chambers, please come!!!



Peace out.