What is the NUS and what are its objectives?
The NUS is the national representative for students at affiliated universities and colleges across the UK. We represent around 5.3 million students and work locally with the bodies that these students make-up.
What does the LGBT branch of the NUS undertake for the national LGBT student community? What is your role within that?
The primary aim is about championing the rights of LGBT students across the UK. If affiliated, LGBT groups from member universities are part of NUS-LGBT and we provide the groups with campaigning and networking tools and information to enable local LGBT groups to champion their own rights.
The NUS-LGBT is directed by the local groups in a sense. That is what my role, and the NUS’ role is: to coordinate local LGBT groups’ campaigns via mandates that they raise at our national conference.
How did you become the national NUS LGBT Officer? Prior to this appointment were you a member of a university LGBT organisation?
I started out as a member of my LGBT University group at Paisley University in Scotland. A year later I found myself as President of that group and a year further down the line, I was NUS LGBT Scotland Officer. From there, I could run for the national officer position, to which I was duly elected this year in Sheffield. In a sense, you could say it all began in Paisley and grew from there!
What courses of action would you recommend and encourage university LGBT representatives to engage in, acting in their official capacity?
I think LGBT representatives must realise that lots of LGBT people join their local group/support network because they see it as a way of making friends. They must try to politically motivate their LGBT groups and engage their members in LGBT rights issues; otherwise the national campaign will prove futile.
Some people share the view that the LGBT community is not activist enough. What do you have to say on this matter: as a whole, is our LGBT community satisfactorily active?
There is obviously always room for more activism; however, I would not go so far as to say that the LGBT community is apolitical or inactive. For example, last year, there was a good national movement of LGBT student groups protesting against the blood ban on gay and bisexual males. Many petitions and the like have been collected over this issue. At the moment, I think that the LGBT community is more active than it has ever been! It is all just a matter of hitting the right buttons: you need to get issues that interest the LGBT community, and then they will participate.
I don’t see many marches or protests organised. Isn’t this classic activism?
Nowadays we are cleverer about the campaigns that are run: more letter writing is now undertaken as opposed to taking to the barricades and storming the streets. We talk to unions about their policy issues and such like; we are, in effect, diversifying our actions. That is not to say that we do not publicly demonstrate in the classic sense: last year for instance, there was a demonstration outside the Ugandan Embassy protesting about how the LGBT community is treated over there. I do have reservations about Pride Festivals however; they seem to be more about capturing the ‘Pink Pound’ rather than showing our pride. We seem to be paying vast amounts of money to see our favourite pop acts at these festivals.
Do you have any marches or protests lined-up for students to participate in? If so, when and where?
There are lots of locally organised marches about the blood ban for gay and bisexual men ongoing around various campuses around the country, but on a national level, there is nothing at present simply because the issues being dealt with require lobbying in alternative manners.
What about the state-of-affairs in Nigeria? What is your organisation doing to tackle the horrific homophobia over there, which could be set to worsen if a bill that is before their National Assembly becomes law?
We want local groups to write to the Nigerian Embassy to register a sign of protest. But we have been in contact with the Nigerian LGBT movement so as not to jeopardise what they are doing, because this subject is a very difficult matter for all concerned. They were asking us to do nothing at first, in case they should receive negative press. However, they now realise that something needs to be done, and want the NUS to put pressure on the Government of the UK.
What do you enjoy about being NUS LGBT officer?
I like seeing students coming along to NUS events for the first time and becoming engaged in the campaigns that are being run, challenging democracy and making it stronger in the process. I think that the political sense of LGBT people is good at the moment, so the doubters are probably wrong. I enjoy being able to help LGBT rights.
How can students contact you and where
can they find out more information about you
and your position?
Scott.Cuthbertson@nus.org.uk
www.officeronline.co.uk
