Here is my report from NUS LGBT Conference this weekend, though I'll warn you...it's long 'un!
This was my second LGBT conference, and I was looking forward to leading the Manchester Cru down to London for what looked to be a pretty impressive line-up of workshops and sessions. Having met a lot of other LGBTs from the recent NUS LGBT North meet was also good; as we were looking forward to seeing lots of people we knew dahn sarf…
So in typical Seb-style, I will now rant off what we did all weekend!
Saturday 25th NovemberAt 7am Geoff, Ian, Shelley, Jen and I met at Piccadilly station where we also saw
Matt Smith and Alan Bailey from Salford LGBT, and also Alan Scobbie, the MMU Gay Rights Officer.
After watching the ticket machines refuse to serve Shell, we dashed around M&S Simply Food for snacks, and were refused when we tried to buy cool cocktails (Singapore Slings) in cans.
All the seats were reserved on the train so we sat in odd seats with no windows and had extremely inappropriate-for-a-public-space conversations that were largely started by Shelley.
On arrival at Euston, we met up with the guys from Salford and MMU who had been scattered about the train and we all walked down to the IoE together.
We soon bumped into Darren Batey and Scott Eastwood from Liverpool Hope (who we’d met at the NUS LGBT North meet), and Kate Rowley from UCL (who Shell and I knew from moth-ridden Summer Conference in Sheffield)
The sessions began with a welcome from Scott Cuthbertson and Claire Anderson, the NUS LGBT Officers. They are extremely approachable and friendly, are a really great pair and have worked so hard so far this year.
We then had a regional meeting with the other delegates from the NUS North Region (Merseyside to Tyneside), led by NUS LGBT Committee members James (Disabled Students), Vic (Women’s Place), Abi (Women’s FE) and Fran (Disabled Students). In what was to become a standard, we all had to sit with people we didn’t know, have a chat with them, and then introduce them to the group.
The NUS committee then told us a bit about how they wanted us to work togethe
r more as a region, especially as we are the largest region.
We then went for lunch and ate our free sandwiches before rejoining the queue to get more.
Then followed the Caucus groups for specific LGBT sub-groups: Women, Black Students, Bisexual Students, Disabled Students, Trans Students and Queer Students. Jen and I tried to attend Trans Caucus to try and help us learn a bit more about things but as we didn’t really identify as Trans we couldn’t go. I would have attended Queer Caucus but it wasn’t actually advertised, and apparently wasn’t even the room that some people were told anyway.
We used the gap whilst other Caucuses were running to check into our hotel, just over the road. Jen and Shell were sharing, as were Geoff and I, whilst Ian got to share with someone who I only really knew as the “bisexual dentist from Liverpool”! We were disappointed to note that BBC1 was not available on the TV, meaning that Strictly Come Dancing was not to be part of our evening schedule.
Following the Caucus groups, I attended a workshop on Trans issues given by GIRES with Jen. We found the couple who did the workshop really good. Although their talk was perhaps slightly medicalised, they were quite effective in getting the message across that being “trans” is not a mental health problem or attention-seeking, but just something that some people are. Their own personal experiences with their daughter were pretty moving too – their daughter was bullied terribly at work (Chessington World of Adventures) where there was a betting pool to see who could injure the girl the most and force her to leave work. Jen and I were happy to stay way after the official end-time to hear more.
We are considering asking GIRES to come to Manchester for LGBT Awareness Week in February 2007 as part of a number of activities based on educating people about LGBTQ issues.
The early evening slot was the “Reclaim the Night” march, which as a man I could not attend, and the alternative, a workshop, which had started before we had left the GIRES one, was on Men’s sexual health which didn’t really appeal to me as I know quite a lot about this anyway from activities within UMSU, Manchester LGBT, my degree and the Men’s Health Forum!
We went for awful dinner at the hotel – fish and chips with minging vegetables, and then went for the planned entertainment back at IoE. We had a good evening with our new friends from Liverpool Hope and UCL, and after the not-exactly brilliant bands we went to Soho. I was quite excited really, although to be honest my expectations were a bit dashed. We still
had fun, but I definitely prefer a night out in Manchester. Of course, I totally managed to make a show of myself by excessive shouting and honking a passing rickshaw’s horn, but the night was a good continuation of the day’s networking with other Unions and it was great to get to other people better.
After taking a rather drunk delegate home we returned to the hotel to find that Jen was locked out of her room by an unwitting Shelley who thought we were scary random drunks knocking on the door, so we spent the night in Darren and Scott’s room like squatters!
Sunday 26th NovemberAfter 4 hours of not sleeping we were up again at 7.
45am to get up and have breakfast before the Committee Reports section. As this was the only part of the Conference that required more than 50% of delegates to attend we made sure to be there only a little late. It was also the only time we would get to use our voting cards which I think may have also been a factor enabling us to actually get up!
It was then, rather annoying to find that we, being 20 minutes late, were the first delegation to arrive… What was worse was that by 10.30, when the session was supposed to close, that there were still not enough delegates present. Scott & Claire were justifiably irritated by the laziness of many delegates and had a bit of a rant at those of us who were there, but you could totally understand why. The Committee Reports section gives everyone a chance to know what everyone who has been elected is doing, and to bring those activities into question should the need arise. It is, therefore, a vital section of Conference! We were knackered, but the Conference costs £20 000 to put on, and each Union pays a fair amount to send everyone down, so I personally was quite angry that we had made the effort whilst others couldn’t be bothered, which effectively ruined the day’s schedule as the Reports had to fitted in later by cutting back on other sections. I was, however, very proud that Manchester NUS North region took Conference seriously.
Following a short recess, we moved onto a Plenary session on reconciling religion or faith with being LGBT. There were representatives from the Jewish student organisation BaGeLs (David Mitchell), Young Lesbian and Gay Christians (Sarah Hagger) and a Muslim ex-NUS and current UNISON staff member (Pav Aktar). They each spoke about their own experiences regarding their faith & being LGBT. It was a fascinating session, marred only slightly by Pav’s tendency to go on a bit, especially when it was about how great the Labour party are, which wasn’t really relevant! It was however, really positive to see that all three representatives noted how they had each had very similar experiences, which was perhaps a starting point for LGBT people to work together to make different faiths a bit more accepting of LGBT people.
After lunch, which we ate in the Safe Space, we then split again to go to various workshops. I went to the hastily-added-following-a-cancellation Student Pride workshop held by Tom Guy and Nick Imrie. Student Pride started in 2004 at Oxford Brookes SU in response to some homophobic groups on campus. It swelled the following year to an event attended nationally by hundreds. For 2007, Student Pride will be held in association with NUS LGBT, and so following discussions, Claire Anderson and Tom contacted me to ask whether I thought Manchester could host such an event. This workshop was to help them plan a bigger and better event which was properly geared to the needs and desires of its potential student attendees.
On arrival, Tom accosted me to ask/tell me that I would be talking about “Manchester” to the workshop. This is because Student Pride 2007 will be held in Manchester, at UMSU (and possibly MMSU too) and so I and others from UMSU, MMSU and USSU LGBTs will be helping to organise.
The first part of the workshop was a brainstorming session on what could be good to have. A major consensus was that Student Pride was a good opportunity to have a “non-commerical” Pride event, with a good mix of educational and fun activities.
Whilst a few of the ideas were a bit ambitious (full-on festival-like camping, 2000 people & major bands anyone?!), there were lots of great suggestions, such as on-site health facilities, sports events, street-theatre & performances, and my favourite: It’s A Knockout contests!
As the Manchester liaison, I had to outline what we had for LGBT people within Manchester city, as well as UMSU (this put a bit of a dampener on those who had suggested camping & portaloos – I said that the Arts Quad probably isn’t really big enough!). I also introduced Matt from Salford and Candice from Man Met.
At the end of the workshop, I stayed behind with the Greater Manchester Unions and we had a chat about what we could do. I also spoke with Tom and Nicki for far too long about a lot of the logistical things. However, overall, I’m very excited about being a small part of what looks to be an amazing event. Look out in June for Student Pride 2007! (
www.studentpride.co.uk)
“Plenary B” followed, which was a short talk from a Liberal Democrat MP with a lot of interest in LGBT issues, and who sits on a number of relevant committees. His main point was to say that although the Labour government has definitely made unprecedented progress on LGBT issues, it has not necessarily been a willing process – a number of reforms that passed weren’t championed by MPs, rather they were forced through by European legislation. The point was that we still have to work so that MPs will vote on issues based on their consciences, and so that their consciences tell them that LGBT issues are important.
The session descended however as some Labour students took the opportunity to have a bit of a go at this guy, which seemed a bit unnecessary. It was quite sad to see such high-up NUS people unable to take in something from a person who was not-Labour - this guy wasn’t spinning things, he was simply telling the truth!
The last event was the final workshop on Women’s issues, which all of us from Manchester attended. We ended up having to take the side of “We do not believe there should be specific Women’s representation in Unions” in a rather staged debate that basically showe
d us how lame the arguments are for removing Women’s representation! We all agreed though that Claire Anderson, the current Women’s Place Officer, was excellent and quite inspiring – she seems to be of a different mould to the typical person at NUS and it’s quite refreshing!
After a lovely closing speech in which Scott and Claire thanked each other, we sprinted to Euston to get the fullest train home. The 7 of us
from Manchester & Liverpool Hope were crowded down in the wheelchair section of the Quiet Zone coach, sat on each other’s legs. The combination of no space, incredible warmth, large number of sugary snacks, the long journey and the excitement of conference led to some rather bizarre behaviour…
Describe Conference in 5 words?Inspiring, energising, thought-provoking, proud & FUN!
Seb Pillon
UMSU LGBT Secretary (Open Place)
November 2006
