LGBT+ Reading

Ben Cohen - With Ken Smailes, Karl Hobley and Ben Rider

Manchester NUS LGBT Conference 2012

I had an amazing weekend at the conference! It was really interesting to find out about what the national committee were doing and had planned for the year ahead. Their priority campaigns related to LGBT issues in sport and religion and bullying of LGBT people at school. These were all campaigns that I planned to focus on at Reading next year so it was great to see that NUS was already a step ahead and that there would be support to implement the campaigns I am passionate about.

 The conference workshops gave me a great opportunity to learn about how to carry out campaigns and how to start the planning process.  I also got to go to a workshop on bullying at schools which was both very interesting and inspiring. Apart from the workshops I also learnt lots from the people that I talked to over the weekend. Most importantly I got to talk to lots of Trans students and find out about the issues that they face at university. This was great as I had never had the chance to talk to a Trans student at Reading.

The motions debates in which we, as delegates from our different universities, got to vote on were a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the ideas that people proposed for the NUS LGBT committee to focus on in the coming year were very significant and useful, in my opinion. Some, on the other hand, were not so relevant, most notably a “Gay Dumbledore” campaign idea to raise awareness of the Harry Potter character as a homosexual in literature. The adding of “Parts” and “Amendments” to pointless campaigns, such as this, was quite infuriating!

The Saturday night Gala dinner was brilliant. Listening to the rugby star Ben Cohen give a speech and talk about his work on bullying in schools was fascinating and getting a picture with him was undoubtedly also a highlight of the evening! The best part, however, was being shortlisted for 3 awards. We gasped when the first one was announced and were so shocked to find out we were in two of the other lists! So well done to everybody who contributed to getting these amazing tokens of achievement and especially to Ken for his tireless work!

The nights out were awesome! I must say Manchester’s gay nightlife is second to none. With a whole street and surrounding area packed with bars and clubs it’s a wonder why anyone would go anywhere else! Friday night was hilarious with my highlight being chasing after Ken as he was being dragged into Cruise 101. Saturday night was even better and I got to chat to loads of new people and tell all the Leeds LGBT how much I love them!

The conference weekend was loads of fun and I can’t wait to go again next year!

Ben Rider