NUS LGBT Conference
NUS LGBT Conference – Liverpool 7th-9th May
This year UPSU sent its largest delegation yet to the National LGBT Conference comprising of two female positions, Kym Morgan & Sabrina Sayed; two open positions, Gavin Riley & Maxim Davys, and one black delegate Hamzah Akhtar.
In correlation, NUS received the largest national delegation since the beginning of conference, pushing the movement for true democracy and accurate representation of self-defined LGBT people forward.
Needless to say, conference was hugely successful with over 40motions opened to the floor for debate and vote. Some of the main issues that dominated the floor this year were hugely contentious, for others there was unanimity. The ‘LGBT Fight against Fascism’ kick started the motion debates and was fully supported by the delegation. A number of policies were submitted to ensure and intensify support for the ‘Unite Against Fascism’ movement, which since the rise of the BNP has supported the LGBT stand up against the hatred and flagrant homophobia of Nick Griffin.
UPSU LGBT's delegation at the NUS LGBT conference
For UPSU LGBT, we found the most contentious motions were regarding the ‘Love Without Borders’ campaign and NUS LGBT reform. The ‘Love Without Borders’ campaign is an excellent project that UPSU LGBT will be adopting next year, highly recognising and seeking to combat the horrific oppression that the international LGBT face. Many amendments to this motion were passionately debated for some time, particularly regarding the call for LGBT liberation in Palestine. Many delegates felt that voting on this motion in its entirety, which incorporates showing solidarity with LGBT communities and organisations in Palestine, was declaring unquestioned support for Palestine. However, the motion was eventually passed with an admirable argument from Hanif Leylabi (NUS LGBT Committee, Open Place), suggesting that regardless of any personal view on the Israel Palestine war, liberation will never be achieved under occupation.
Each year, NUS dedicate a section of the motions specifically to system reform. This became a very heated and controversial debate, particularly regarding the formation of a ‘Gay Man’s Caucus’ within conference. As it stood, there were separate caucuses for those who self-identify as Trans, Women, Bisexual, Black, Disabled, FE and Queer. However, until now there has never been a caucus for Gay men. Many of the opposing arguments came from within the Women’s Caucus, stating that we are still living in a patriarchal society and although Gay men are repressed due to their sexuality, they do not face the same challenges that self-identifying women within the LGBT face who are repressed due to gender and sexual orientation. This motion was passed with the counter argument that LGBT people are repressed enough without repressing other LGBT people within our community due to gender, and that female related LGBT campaigns can be taken on as central campaigns of NUS LGBT as are male related LGBT issues. Our delegation from UPSU unanimously supported the formation of a Gay Man’s caucus as we feel that this would better represent the majority of our society at Portsmouth, and with the sentiment of eradicating any emanating gender discrimination within the National LGBT Campaign that may occur should the needs of Gay men not be protected as women’s are in the future.
Vicki Baars, NUS LGBT Officer (Women’s Place), said: “Conference 2010 has been a fantastic success with an increase in representation from FE students and plenty of contentious motion debates. We now have policy that we nationally and Student Union’s locally can campaign on, changing attitudes and changing lives”.
UPSU LGBT is very passionate about representing local LGBT FE Students and increasing awareness and diversity within the Student Union. We are going to really push our current ‘Donation not Discrimination campaign to the top of the agenda and introduce some new campaigns such as ‘Love Without Borders’, ‘Fighting the BNP’ and ‘Keeping the Faith’ as well as promoting the ‘Love Music Hate Homophobia’ campaign.
Next year we aim to renovate our campaigns, we want to make UPSU LGBT a respected voice heard on campus and eradicate the preconceptions and stereotypes that some may associate with our society. Maxim Davys UPSU LGBT Officer stated that: “I have benefited enormously from the experience and hope to use what I have learnt on my coming year in my new position”.
We believe that conference has been a fantastic opportunity to further incorporate ourselves into the mainstream campaigns of NUS LGBT of which we are very excited to bring to the Union, on campus and in the local community next year.
To contact UPSU LGBT, email lgbt@upsu.net.
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