LGBT Conference - Coventry 26-27th November

After the fun and the cold of National Council at Coventry I was looking forward to spending another two days shivering in their hall, and I was to be disappointed as they put us in another venue where heating had (kind of) been invented.

I’d registered late which lead to some confusion with me explaining to Steering that Areas did actually have a vote and I wasn’t a mere observer (though thanks to WMANUS for helping me explain this), and some interesting shenanigans getting a room (if you see me about then feel free to ask about my very scary and very sleepless night).

The opening presentation was good for reminding exactly why we have liberation campaigns, and I hope it becomes available and used by all communities within the student movement. The statistics concerning suicide, depression and mental health among LGBT students is shocking, and where University can be a safe environment for some, it remains scary and lonely for others.

The first workshop session I attended was about LGBT History month – an initiative set up last year and which had over 100 events associated with it in a single year, meaning their target for 2006 is over 1000. I really hope institutions in the South East Area do consider holding events during February and I’m more than happy to help out with this as much as possible. Check out the website (www.lgbthistorymonth.org.uk) for more information – I really do recommend LGBT groups doing some action for this.

Lunch was followed by a second workshop run on the School’s Out, and especially the ‘Stamp Out Homophobia’ campaign that Claire from BUGs has been running. It was really inspirational to see a student achieving so much on a national level – I’m sure we’ll be seeing more from her… Again check t’internet (http://www.schools-out.org.uk) for more on this campaign.

Steering report – some suspension of standing orders that were written for a 3 day (not 2 day as this was) conference. How I love bureaucracy…

The first motion session (and I know you’ll have skipped down to this bit) was Education. I could replicate the whole thing here, but you can find the final motion document online.

Main Motion; Wes Streeting spoke for - a very clever bit of speaking playing on his Labour Students reputation I thought (English Grad that I am I spent all conference deconstructing speeches). All amendments passed and were:
City Academies; This was to oppose City academies that are funded by Christian fundamentalists (3 out of the 11). There was some discussion about opposing city academies full stop and this was removed. Favourite speech of the weekend when someone said ‘There’s no point opposing this… we can’t change anything…’ causing much under-the-breath muttering from myself.
FE representation; increasing it and supporting LGBT societies within them. A bit of blatant profiling occurred in the subsequent speeches, something that continued throughout the conference to my annoyance.
An accessible education for all; Working to with School’s Out and increasing the teaching of LGBT history and culture in schools.
LGBT Students, fair access and OFFA; does what it says on the tin.
LGBT People in Education and Employment; making sure research includes inequalities for LGBT people.
Sex, It’s an Education; Sex Ed for LGBT students is pretty dire, even compared to straight students. Although lesbians are in one of the lowest risk categories for STDs the education they get is pants.

Julian Nicholds summated and we went to dinner.

After the smallest portion of lasagne in my life we returned for the second motion which was Transforming our campaign.

Main motion; Kat Louis spoke for – this motion was aimed at making the LGBT campaign and LGBT conferences fairer, more representative and more accessible. The first four amendments passed and were:
Zoning; this was to add zoning (like NUS National Conference) to the LGBT conferences. I’d supported this motion and it passed.
Take it out; an amendment to stop names being published in online copies of motion documents, inadvertently outing anyone whose name is searched for on Google. I was shocked by the speech against this motion – I think everyone should be able to participate in LGBT events whether ‘out’ or not.
Conference changes; making the Winter Conference a training event and the Summer Conference a more dedicated policy setting body. Some to-ing and fro-ing but passed.
Structure; trying to get a fairer system of representation. After parts the finished amendment wasn’t perfect but it was much better.

Amendments 5 and 6 fell because of the guillotine. There had been a very frustrating half hour where the guillotine was extended and we then mucked around with Standing Orders for all that extended time – I can’t remember who went up and said that Standing Orders impeded democracy but they were spot on.

James-J summated and the day ended apart from the social. This was very good apart from people laughing at my appalling dancing and the lack of real ale or bitter at the bar.

The next morning saw the Womens, Black, SWD, Trans, Bisexual and FE Caucus’ meeting. I don’t fit into any of these so managed to get to church first thing. 11.25 heralded in the Regional Meetings, where I described the still available post for SEANUS LGB officer and we had a chat about organising a Southern Universities trip to Brighton on 11th February.
Motion Session 3 which followed was Welfare. Stephen Brown spoke for the motion and Pav Ahktar spoke against it, concerned with some inaccuracies.
There was time for 5 amendments to be debated and again they all passed.
Hate Crime; increasing reporting rates and tackling homophobia in schools.
Transsexual health; Improving access to health information for Trans people
Bi-phobia in our campaign and community; tackling the mistreatment of Bisexuals.
There’s SWD in LGBT; again, increasing accessibility and support for this under-represented group.

After lunch, the committee reports gave some a good chance to moan at the committee, as did the Finance report though both were passed.

The third workshop was about hate crime and was delivered by a very nice young policeman. Not really sure what I got from this session to be honest.

The final session was the motion Society and Beyond and the one of the Emergency motions. S&B had 6 amendments all of which passed.
Civil Partnerships Act; supporting the Act and opposing those who oppose it
Supporting the religious rights of LGBT people; something I felt VERY strongly about and was desperate to get a speech for but failed. Wes Streeting summated and said everything I was going to so I wasn’t too upset (and in the spirit of the in-jokes that permeate the NEC Blogs; hello to Wes’ mum).
Equality is Equality and Pensions; both about campaigning for LGBT equality in society.
Internationalism and Europe; both about opposing homophobia over seas and supporting LGBT communities.

The Emergency Motion was about getting bi-lingual campaign materials.

And that was that – all very thrilling to read I’m certain! Any questions give me a shout,

Nickers x
n.a.smith@reading.ac.uk