It's all happening in February

We've been busy bees this month! It's all change at LGBT... we've finally got ourselves our own proper up-to-date tailor-made constitution, which is great news. We have also held elections for next year's committee - or should I say this year? The new committee will take over office from the Summer term, their details will go up in the Committee section of the website soon. There is a new committee structure, which was implemented as part of the new constitution, and is designed to support the changing demands of the group. Incidentally, we're still looking to fill the following positions:
Social Secretary (2 positions available)
Campaigns & Education Officer
Male Welfare Officer

...so if you're interested, get in touch!

Today, Ruth and Takeshi attended a UCU training event in London entitled 'Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality in Post-16 Education'. The event was attended by HE/FE staff, managers, and there were a few other students too. The opening session was a speech about the issues surrounding LGBT equality in HE/FE, which brought up the very interesting question on how to implement LGBT equality and tackle the potential conflict that comes with doing so.

The training included a workshop on Gender Identity Equality, which included an introduction to the legislation that exists for trans people in the UK, and issues that need to be addressed, helped by some case study discussions.

The other workshop that we attended was on Sexual Orientation Equality. There was some discussion of the legislations and their history, and issues in policy-building. This may sound dull to some of you but it is this kind of policy-making that ensures that the support and protection is there for you as an LGBT person in a HE institution such as the university!

There was a panel session in the afternoon which emphasised the importance of LGBT visibility and that we must challenge the assumptions that if no-one complains about anything LGBT-related within our institution, it does not automatically follow that there is not a problem. Breaking the silence is often a big issue in itself!

We attended a peer group session with the other students present at the training, from which we took away some great ideas for how to facilitate change within the university, at a local level, and up to a national level too - despite the distraction of being filmed by a camera crew at the time! We hope to be able to put these ideas into practice in the near future.

It was an interesting day, notably for the insight into how LGBT equality is (or isn't) addressed by HE institutions themselves. At Reading LGBT we're quite used to working closely with the students' union and NUS to ensure LGBT representation for our student members, but at a university level for both students and staff, can we say that the same amount of effort is put in? If it turns out that University LGBT policy is completely adequate and everyone is happy, then no harm, no foul - but if not... I think we have identified an interesting and challenging area to address.


And finally, next Tuesday is our Charity Fancy Dress party in Cafe Mondial, to celebrate LGBT History Month, in conjunction with the Liberal Democrat society's campaign against homophobic bullying. All proceeds from this event will be donated to local information charity BeYou and national AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust. So get out your outrageous costumes and join us for a night of fun! Details on the website homepage - you can also add yourself to the Facebook event. See you there...