Hey LGBT-ers,
Firstly, to make everyone aware, unfortunately our Trans Officer, Cat, decided this weekend to step down from her Committee role for personal reasons. This will mean that Cat’s Office Hour will no longer be running, however if you have any issues that you’d like to discuss please don’t hesitate to come along to another Office Hour or contact any of our Welfare Officers directly.
Secondly, as you may be aware Leeds Student printed an article in the newspaper last week called “Sex on Campus” which many of our members have found to be offensive. In response to this we have issued a formal complaint to both Leeds Student and the Union which reads as follows:
“Dear LS,
As the committee for the LGBT Society on behalf of our members and ourselves, we would like to complain about the article entitled “Sex on Campus” which was published last week in the student newspaper.
Firstly it is not appropriate to call sex between two men “gay sex”. Gay is a term which defines someone’s personal identity. The people you describe in the article may or may not be gay men. By calling it “gay sex” you are assuming that every male participating in this sexual activity defines himself as “gay” whereas this may not be the case. Because of this, you are causing this activity to solely be associated with gay men, in an act that does not define them. Many gay men do not even have sex with other men. The correct phrase to have used would in fact be “men who have sex with men” often abbreviated to MSM.
Secondly, we feel that you have used a style of writing which villifies men having sex with men, rather than the act of sex in a toilet which is the illegal action. The way the article was written emphasises again and again that it is “gay men” who are having sex rather than two people. We would hope that you realise that sex across campus comes in all sexual orientations and genders. Why pick on men who have sex with men? Surely it was because you thought it more controversial because its men not a man and a woman. You wouldn’t write an article about heteronormative sex on campus because it isn’t as “interesting”.
Thirdly, after incorrectly labelling the action as “gay sex” and therefore inferring that the perpetrators were gay men, you continue to paint an ill conceived picture of homosexuality by including details about the type of people your reporter found in the toilets, such as “balding 30 year olds”.
We don’t think you thoroughly considered the impact this article would have on our community. It reinforced stereotypes, made direct links between illegal actions and sexual orientation and did not once concede that its unlikely that heterosexual sex does not occur on campus.
The article was simply not in the spirit of the Union. The newspaper is supposed to be a positive tool for communication amongst students and should be representative of the student body. The article had little impact on how security dealt with the issue, as was made clear by the response you printed from them, but it has probably stirred up discriminatory feelings amongst some of the people who read it. We feel that for this reason it did more harm than good and is an unethical piece of writing.
Regards
LUU LGBT Society Committee”
Anyone who wishes to make their own personal complaint should do so by sending it to both Leeds Student and to the Union. We would like to encourage our members when making complaints that they avoid making inappropriate comments are threats. If anyone has made any inappropriate comments in their complaints we would urge them to apologise to those who they complained to.
On a lighter note on Wednesday 22nd February we will be holding our first ‘Curious?’ of 2012, following the success of last year’s ‘Curious?’. Tickets are now on sale and can be bought from Coffee Hour, the Union helpdesk and from the ‘Curious?’ stall in the Union foyer on Monday. Tickets cost just £3 when bought in advance or will be £4 on the door.
Hope to see you all soon,
Your Committee Xx
