This is the first of a series of blog posts on different aspects of the LGBTQ movement that we hope will enlighten and educate you on what are possibly the areas which people tend to know less about.

What is polyamory?

The Oxford English Dictionary states that it is: The fact of having simultaneous close emotional relationships with two or more other individuals, viewed as an alternative to monogamy, especially in regard to matters of sexual fidelity; the custom or practise of engaging in multiple sexual relationships with the knowledge and consent of all partners concerned.

This is a pretty good definition, but I think it focuses too much on the sexual aspect of a relationship. Polyamory literally translates as many or several loves, so its more of a romantic element than a necessarily sexual one.

However, there are many different things that many different people see as poly. There are many overlapping and intersecting things that are often seen as poly, and I think this chart is the best way of showing them that I’ve come across.

source

FAQs and Debunking myths:

There are so many myths and misinterpretations about polyamory it would be impossible to post them all here.

However, this site has some wonderful and hilarious answers to many of the questions you might have, and answers to many more will be found in the resources further down the page.

Resources: Below you will find a selection of resource: blogs, podcasts, news sites and webcomics, to help you find out more about, or keep up with the news on everything poly. I hope you enjoy them and are inspired to find out more from what you see.

• Poly Weekly: a weekly podcast that you can listen to online or download with a different topic every week. It aims to be talk about ‘Responsible non-monogamy from a kink-friendly, pansexual point of view’. There are 272 episodes, so definately a wealth of information.
• Practical Polyamory: A blog dedicated to passing on help and information on the common challenges of a polyamorous lifestyle and their remedies, as well as info on activism and community organsing.
• Polyamorous Percolations: Polyamory in the News: A news blog dedicated to poly things in the news. not the most prolifically updated site, but atill interesting and useful.
• Poly in Pictures: A funny web-comic updates twice weekly on mainly poly subjects, although others relating to sexuality too. Sexuality via the medium of stick figures, good times.
• The Ethical Slut: is a fantastic book about polyamory, and looks at practical guidance as to how to put such a relationship into practise. Annoyingly, its not available in the University Library (surprise, surprise, prudes. I checked.) but it is available on Amazon here.

So where could I meet more poly people and get more involved?

Aside from getting to know the poly members of the LGBTQ (and there’re quite a few. :]), there are various poly social events that happen. Watch this space for info on when they’re going on, we’ll make sure to put them up as soon as we know whats going on.

UK Poly Mailing List- to talk with other poly people about poly-related issues, and to arrange meetups with other Poly people. Find it here.

If you’re not quite sure what the problem is with having to pay for Pride, I’ll explain a little why the LGBTQ is for a free Pride, and you can make your own mind up.

No one should be excluded from being able to take part in Pride purely because they cannot afford it. If the entry fee were to be around £10, as has been suggested, many LGBTQ people who are, for example, currently unemployed, students,  or are on things like disability living allowance, would simply not be able to afford to attend. Much as many people would be able to afford it, it is simply not fair to exclude anyone simply because of their income.

The reason for this charge is supposedly to stop homophobic violence and harrassment being an issue during Pride. I personally don’t see why a charge would stop people who were intent on causing harm coming into Pride, and if anything might create a bigger issue if it were to become known among homophobic/transphobic groups that the reason for the charge was their potential actions.

Pride is a Protest. Pride came from the fact that as a community we weren’t able to live our lives, we were being killed and jailed and beaten, simply for being LGBTQ. And that still happens all over the world today, even in Britain (without the jailed part). So until we have complete equality, we must not allow Pride to be solely a party, and we must express our right to still protest the inequalities we face: something we cannot be made to pay for.

HIG is back, and we’re celebrating its 5th Anniversary.

Come along to this ever popular event for a fun filled night of partying, dancing, and checking out some new venues on the scene.
Tickets will be £6, and include entry to the club, a t-shirt, travel, and drinks offers.
They are available from
…- all of our regular events (coffee afternoons and film nights)
- being sold in Joe’s Bar from 12-2pm on Fri 5th March and from Mon 7th-Thurs 10th March.
- There will also be tickets avaiable on the night, but we seriously dissuade you from purchasing them on the night because there is no guarantee that you will get a t-shirt.

Make sure to get your tickets soon, and put the date in your diary for a guaranteed fantastic night.

If you are from another Midlands University and would like to block-book tickets and sell them to your members, please contact me (Emma) and I will sort that out for you.
Also, if you’re from another Midlands Uni and need somewhere to stay, please contact me ASAP so we can sort out crashing space for anyone who needs it in good time.

I hope you all had a merry christmas, a happy new year, enjoyed anything else you celebrate, and managed to get all of those essays finished that are due in in 10 days (unlike me).

This may seem like a post that is slightly outdated, as the vote has gone through parliament, but we still have the chance to change the governments’ minds on the tuition fees issue, and on the issue of all of the other cuts being put into place throughout society. This may seem like a random topic for me to be posting on my blog, after all, what do LGBTQ rights have to do with cuts? Heres what:

LGBTQ students are much more likely to be alienated from their families.
If you cannot ask your families for support because of your sexuality, you are obviously going to find it much more difficult to manage to deal with rent, bills, food, and expenses, WITHOUT fees being raised even more. LGBTQ students who are already struggling to cope will be disproportionately affected by raising tuition fees.

LGBTQ people are more likely to have problems at school, and therefore less likely to continue on to FE and HE.
72% of young lesbians and gay men have played truant to avoid homophobia, and only 6% of schools have a policy on homophobic bullying. With these odds stacked up against us, much as many LGBTQ people continue on to have a fantastic time at uni, a huge amount do not manage to make it here because of the bullying they experience earlier in life. Again, these increases in fees and cuts to departments will only discourage people who are worried about bullying continuing (2 in 5 who experience bullying are worried it will carry on in later education.)

I marched in London on December 9th not only because I believe that all of the cuts being pushed through parliament will be hugely dehabilitating for our society, but also because it is a part of my job to fight against those things that will damage the lives of current and future LGBTQ students here, and it is undoubtable that this will.

And after getting out of the kettle on Westmintminster Bridge after having been kept in parliament square for approximately 7 hours, and then on the Bridge, packed so tight I could have taken my feet off the floor and not fallen over, watching people pass out and not being let out, I know for certain that their tactics to make us all feel like shit and not come back didn’t work: I have never felt so proud as I did when I had to walk down a line of police about 50 yards long, 3 men thick, all alone because we were only being let out one by one.

This year, the vigil was very well attended, with aboud 40/45 people coming, both students, and members of various Birmingham based LGBTQ community groups, as nothing else was happening to mark the occasion in Birmingham. Kai Weston, and Kara Cooper (one of the University Chaplains) made a short speech of remembrance, and a list was read out of the names of all of the people who had been victims in the past year.

World AIDS Day

After a hugely frantic, busy, but very enjoyable evening spent baking, the LGBTQ Association raised a grand total of £87.04 for the National AIDS Trust on World AIDS Day, December 1st.

We sold almost all of the cakes to passers by next to Joe’s, and succeeded in tempting a large amount of unsuspecting parents on tours with their kids…

Homophobia in Halls Campaign

I’m very pleased to say we have had a mainly positive response to the Homophobia in Halls campaign so far. Anyone who could still fill out the form, please find the link on my previous blog.

I will be meeting with Johnny Davis (VPW) and Emily Owen, who is the senior student support advisor at the Guild, on Monday. So I will keep people posted on that.

Other shizz.

HISTORY MONTH- After a brainstorming/planning session for LGBTQ History Month last week, February looks to be rather thrilling.
A Time Capsule will hopefully be being made, department specific historical LGBTQ figures, Love Music Hate Homophobia/Love Music Hate Racism, of course Homophobia is Gay, and much more.
Sadly, Stephen Fry has been confirmed as unavailable… we tried.

Whether they be good, or bad, I am conducting a survey on the University’s and Guild’s responses to homo-/bi-/trans-phobia in Halls, and in order to get the most representative picture possible, I need YOU.

WHATEVER your experiences, I want to know about them. Whether you are LGBTQ, straight, had bad experiences, had good ones, never say anything happen to anyone else, or witnessed someone else being bullied or harrassed, I want to know about it.

Hopefully, these results will come back saying that the problem is rare and localised, but if not, then I want to know what your problems are/were, who you went to to get help about them, and how well you feel those people responded.

Together, we can create a better university experience for anyone who is being bullied or harrassed for any of these reasons.

Repost this to all of your friends, and lets get as many responses as we possibly can.

The survey can be found here:

qwik surveys

Take our Online Survey

Reclaim the Night
Last Saturday Nina Paul, Eddi Moorhouse, Debs and a few members of Women’s Association helped by stewarding at the annual Reclaim the Night march in Birmingham city centre.
Reclaim the Night is a women-only march against violence based on gender and for gender equality. The march was a fantastic experience, although it would have been nice to see more students there, as according to the Hidden Marks study, 68% of female students have been subject to verbal, physical or sexual harrasment based on their gender.
Afterwards, we heard some pretty awesome feminist music, and enjoyed a few drinks and some tasty free food at The Old Joint Stock.

On Thursday, I attended the Sister Activist Training Day run by NUS Women’s Campaign. It may sound like I’ve just been up to loads of feminist activism, but I believe that the right for women’s and LGBTQ rights are intrinsically linked. Feminism is, obviously, the belief that women are equal to men on every level, and deserve to be treated as such. It is also the belief that patriachy is the cause of this lack of equality. I believe that the cause of homophobia, as well as sexism, in the world, is patriachy. This is because LGBTQ people, who do not conform either to the patriachal institutions heterosexuality, or to the stereotypes and assumptions attached to gender, cause people who are homophobis to feel threatened. This may not be a conscious feeling, but nevertheless, homophobia’s rrot cause is people’s uncomfortableness with us deviating from a patriachal norm.

Sister ACTivist Day
After that rather irrelevant side note, the Sister Activist Day was amazing. The days consisted of-
- Intro to feminist campaigning; a simulated council meeting about how to win arguments about women’s issues and how to respond to negativity in the council; a talk about why attending the National Demo is so important for women students; a workshop on Domestic Violence by the organisation Tender (whom I hope to be able to work with this year to do a workshop on domestic violence in LGBTQ relationships); and a workshop on the objectification of women. I learnt a lot from the day, not only about issues which affect women students specifically, but about how I can improve my own campaigning and work especially with the women’s campaign regarding LGBTQ issues.

LGBTQ Association Emergency General Meeting
On Thursday Night the LGBTQ Association held their Emergency General Meeting to elect three new committee members, two of whom will hold Open Places, and one of whom will hold a Guild Councillor place.
I am very please to announce that:
Rachel Foreman, Rob Wasdell and Alex Montague, are now brand spaking new committee members, and I very much look forward to working with them, as they all seem full of great ideas.

Progressive Students Conference
At 6.30 am on Saturday morning, Dan Guzman, Alex Montague and I drove down to London for the Progressive Students Conference. I was pretty annoyed that Feminism in London 2010 was on the same day, but hopefully next year that clash won’t be an issue.
On the agenda was ‘Organising to challenge the cuts consensus’; ‘One Society, Many Cultures’; a guest speech from Ken Livingstone (who would certainly be a welcome change to Boris Johnson as Major…); ‘Global Peace and Justice’; ‘Winning Liberation’; and ‘The IS an alternative’.
With 28 speakers, it was certainly an insanely busy day, but also hugely inspiring as an activist. I found it surprisingly easy to relate what almost every speaker said back to my mandate as LGBTQ Officer, and to what we must all do together to challenge to changes that will be coming our way.

Vigil Against Hate Crime

In the evening we went to the 2nd Annual Candlelit Vigil for International Day Against Hate Crime. We joined thousands of people from across the country in Trafalgar Square to commemorate the lives of those who have been murdered or attacked in crimes related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. It was touching to see so many people, but also so many who were personal friends, there to pay their respects and listen to what was said.
There were speakers from all kinds of different organisations, including Alan Bailey, Peter Tatchell and Stuart Milk (nephew of the late Harvey Milk). What was said was incredible. I honestly can’t think of any other word to use. We were all reminded that our complacency cannot carry on, and no matter how much we do, we can always do that little bit more.
At 8pm there was a 2 minute silence, a moving moment in Trafalgar Square, and we also heard from various London based gay choirs and orchestras who played and sang stunningly.

Overall, what a week its been. I probably won’t have a busier one, for a while, but hopefully that’ll mean I can spend more time campaigning and organising, and less time writing waffling blogs… Only time will tell.

Pope Benedict XVI has, undoubtably, some of the most controversial views of any Pope for a few decades. However, it is also undeniable that he still acts as an iconic and hopeful figure for a small but significant minority of the British population. Therefore I would like to outline my personal views on the positives and negatives of the Papal visit to the UK. As I believe the negatives far outweight the positives, I’ll start with them.

Negatives:

• There have been seventeen state visits to this country by the Heads of State of various countries in the last decade. However, all of these have aimed to forge links between countries and include democratic talks between leaders. The Pope’s visit, however, will consist of an open air mass, prayers with religious representatives, meeting children from Catholic schools (which I will move onto later), addressing ‘British society’ at Westminster Hall, hold another Mass, and beatify Cardinal Newman, and visiting an old people’s home to speak to those who cannot make it to any of his masses.

• Notice that literally none of these events are a part of any kind of democratic talk, discussion or debate. The views he holds will most likely not be challenged by anyone that he meets, and although he is meeting the Queen, he has not arranged to have any contact with David Cameron.

• We are in a recession, and huge cuts are being made to government spending. It has recently been announced that the police force nationwide will face 25% cuts, child benefits have been frozen for at least three years, along with huge cuts in most areas of the public sector. Ratzinger’s visit, although it is being subsidised by the Catholic Church, is still estimated to be costing the taxpayer £10-12 million, and that is without having taken into account any policing costs, which will undoubtably increase this hugely. I personally believe that this money, which obviously every one of us if footing the bill for, could be much better used on, for example, not cutting the NHS budget by as much, and therefore literally saving lives.

• Obviously, for me, the Ratzinger’s views on things that I view as basic human rights are the most inflammatory. I don’t believe that a liberal (ish) country like Britain should be funding the visit of such an extremist, hate-mongering man.
  1. Ratzinger has been accused of being heavily involved in the Vatican’s alleged cover-up of child abuse. In 2003, he wrote a letter to all bishops stating that the guidelines written in 1962 stating that they should keep the ‘strictest’ secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse’ and threatens those who speak out with excommunication. For such a blatanly illegal stance to be backed up almost 40 years later with no regret or guilt is pretty shocking.
  2. The Pope is openly against the use of contraception, having said that :
     ‘It is of great concern that the fabric of African life, its very source of hope and stability, is threatened by divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraception mentality’ Source
     Most people would argue that African life at the moment if threatened by AIDS, with 60% of people living with the virus living in Sub-Saharan Africa. For a head of State and religious icon to make such an outdated and idealistic statement will only perpetuate the problem, causing pious people to damage themselves to insane levels because they are following the harmful teachings of someone they believe to be inspiring.
     He has also called the use of condoms and other contraceptives an ‘unseen holocaust‘. Holocaust is defined by OED as ‘a great slaughter or massacre’. Most people that agree that to slaughter something it has to already be alive, not the remote chance of a being formed of a single cell with no consciousness.
  3. His views on homosexuality anger me hugely. Here’s a little selection of quotes. Source 1 and 2
     “although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder”
  4. Although he has said that often discrimination against people because they are LGB is wrong, it is ‘obligatory’ to discriminate with regard to “the consignment of children to adoption or foster care,  in employment of teachers and coaches, and in military service”
     In response to demands for civil rights “neither the church nor society should be surprised when irrational and violent reactions increase.” We’re obviously entirely responsible for people committing hate crime against us.

However, I’ve said already that much as I disagree with the Pope’s visit, it does have its advantages. Soooo…

• The visit of such a huge figure will undoubtably bring in a large amount of revenue for the country. There will probably be a lot of people visiting from abroad, anyone visiting London, Birmingham or Edinburgh will also bring in revenue for the city. It is even possible that this could outweigh the cost of the visit, although it will then go back into the private sector and businesses as opposed to the public sector from where the funding is coming.
• It is also undeniable that the Pope provides a source of hope for many people. He, as the head of one of the largest churches in the world, has millions of followers who see his word as law. However, this perpetuates the problem of the Pope’s discriminatory views by portraying the idea that his views are acceptable ones to hold. On the other hand, though, Catholicism in it’s majority of teachings promotes the basic views of being a good person, and this, much as I disagree personally with religion, benefits our society most of the time.
• Ratzinger’s views are not all horrendous. As I’ve said, most ordinary people would believe in many of the teachings of the Catholic church. He believes in nuclear disarmamant, going green, the loosening of immigration laws for people who are justifiably seeking asylum, and diplomatic discussion between states.

Overall, I personally believe that the extremist views of Ratzinger, regardless of the prospective income for the country that the visit will generate, and the re-affirmation of the faith of many Catholic’s that will certainly come with it, as a liberal and equality promoting country, someone who preaches such unaccepting and, to some extent, hate-mongering views should not be supported by our money, and our State’s backing, to visit the United Kingdom. Hopefully, having read this, you may come to the same, or different conclusions as me, but regardless of your conclusion, at least it is an educated one.

The Personal Bit

• I’m nineteen years old, and I’m going into my second year of English and American Literature, which is pretty enjoyable, I have to say.
• I come from Nottingham where I’ve lived all my life. Much as I love it, I was glad to get away (family, boo hiss).
• Hobbies: Aside from this slightly obsessive but altogether justified passion for LGBTQ rights and feminism, I have various other ways of passing my time. I am a Brownie Leader, helping at a pack in Harborne during term time, and in Nottingham when I get back there during the holidays. I also play the clarinet, and undoubtedly sing too much. If this irritating habit ever starts to drive  you insane, please don’t feel bad telling me to shut up. Other than that, I like to cook tasty vegan food, and hang out with my friends.
• Obviously, as well as all of that, like almost every other student under the sun, I love going out clubbing with some of the incredible friends I’ve made this year.
• Having come out as bisexual when I was about 14 (I think), and then as gay when I started college at 16, and then having helped to set up an LGBTQ Association at said college, I always knew I wanted to become pretty involved in the LGBTQ; but I don’t think I ever would have guessed I would be in this position only a year after coming to University.

Uni, and LGBTQ things this year

• Last year I lived in the Beeches, and had some seriously good, if absolutely insane, flatmates and neighbours.  Much as living there was awesome, the major downside was definitely its situation a couple of miles away from Uni, although it did come with the significant benefit of being within walking distance of town, and cheaper than most of the other halls.
• This year I’m living on Hubert Road with 2 friends from the LGBTQ, thoroughly enjoying the big house of queer.
• I turned up at the LGBTQ for their first coffee afternoon during Fresher’s Week, who knew what an eager beaver I would turn out to be. I have to admit, I felt pretty intimidated going into the Guild for the first time ever and trying to work out who I was looking for, but by the time I’d been there for an hour the other people there had made me feel like I fitted right in, and I hope that they did the same for everyone else.
• As there were two open positions on the committee near the start of the year, I ran for Open Place (Women’s), and was elected at the same time as Dan Kelsey. From there I tried to become as involved as I could and basically just be there to help with whatever planning or organisation that needed doing. Among many other things, I have been involved in organising or taken part in:
• Homophobia is Gay 4
• Door Knocking for the LGBTQ Association in Fresher’s Week
• Been involved in meetings about the development of the <a href="http://www.equality.bham.ac.uk/staff/LGBTQI.shtml"Staff Rainbow LGBT Network.
• Helped to trial the Counselling and Guidance Service’s Q-Chat service and attended training to run and moderate Q-Chat on a regulat basis.
• Attended NUS LGBT Conference in Liverpool, which was hands down one of the best experiences of my life.
  

  Coalition members with our award for LGBT History Month events

• Been a regular contributor and organiser for Coalition Midlands LGBT events, including our programme for LGBT History Month in February, which we won and award for at Conference.
• Helped with various campaigns including ‘Fight for the Right to Party’, an initiative about homophobia in clubs.
• Attended the St. Basil’s Sleepout, a charity event raising money and awareness for homeless teenagers, a situation that sadly, many LGBT people still find themselves in after coming out.
• Collected for Crusaid and THT for World AIDS Day.

Thats all I can think of to write about for now, this blog may well end up being revised in the near future if I read it back and realise it is, in fact, dire. However, if you have any questions, queries, or generally would like to contact me about anything else, please feel free to email me at e.cooper@guild.bham.ac.uk.