NUS LGBT Campaigns
NUS LGBT Campaign is the national representative voice for LGBT students. We provide support to LGBT societies in Students' Unions and organise campaigns and training at local and national level. For more information visit www.officeronline.co.uk/lgbt/
Donation Not Discrimination
The campaign continues to overturn the National Blood Service's (NBS) ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. Last year hundreds of LGBT students got involved in protests on their campus when the NBS visited, and we are urging students to carry on this fight to keep up the pressure. Recently the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust overturned its own ban on gay and bisexual men joining the register, by implementing a system which assesses potential donors according to whether or not they engage in high risk activity, rather than their sexual identity. This is a really positive development and we would urge you all to write to the trust to congratulate them on making this step. More information can be found on their website, with the new policy explained here: www.anthonynolan.org.uk/index.php?table=content&id=222
If you want to find out more about the Donation Not Discrimination campaign, please look on our website where you will find lots of useful resources which you can download to help you run an ‘information picket'. These can be found on the right-hand side of our web page – www.officeronline.co.uk/LGBT - under the heading 'Resources'. You can also order posters highlighting the issue from lgbt@nus.org.uk .
Bullying Sucks
This campaign has been a huge success with thousands of posters, postcards, stickers and sweets being sent out to hundreds of students' unions over the past six months. Due to the popularity of the campaign we do have a backlog in orders so if you have placed an order which hasn't arrived please do bear with us. You should receive your orders in the next few weeks, once materials have been reordered and restocked.
Once again we would urge you to carry on piling pressure on your institution to step up its work around bullying, particularly in relation to homophobic and transphobic bullying. We can provide you with the materials to do this (see the resources section at the end of the newsletter), and we will be contacting you in the next few weeks if you have ordered materials to find out whether you have been able to effect any change at your institution. If you would like to contact us before then to talk about the campaign, please e-mail lgbt@nus.org.uk . You can preview the materials, and find out more about how you can help students in your institution from www.officeronline.co.uk/bullyingsucks .
Love without Borders
Around the world lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people are persecuted, imprisoned and even murdered by their own governments just for being LGBT. Same-sex sexual activities for men are explicitly illegal in more than 80 states around the world, and for women in more than 40 states. In nine of these, the punishment for being LGBT is death. Here in the UK we have won many legal rights over the past few years, but we live in a global community and no longer can we stand by while the suffering continues. It's now time to use our freedom to fight to the rights of others, and we want to include you in this fight! Coming soon: the launch of our campaign on internationalism! Check www.officeronline.co.uk/lgbt for more details.
Discrimination Law Green Paper
Earlier this year the government published a Green paper with proposals for a Single Equality Bill. The aim of this bill is to harmonise existing discrimination legislation which currently spans around 40 different Acts of Parliament. NUS has responded to a public consultation on these proposals, which we think fall very short of what is necessary to increase protection for all groups in society who are discriminated against. Our response can be downloaded from the following link: www.officeronline.co.uk/library/consultations/274661.aspx . We will be continuing to campaign for better and fairer Single Equality Act over the coming months.